How companies can quickly and easily get their hands on more than two billion levs under the new operational programme „Competitiveness and Innovation“? With strict compliance with the poorly defied instructions and guidelines this will certainly not happen. Controversial will be also the success in the recruitment of professionals, as not always the right people are hired. The question that intrigued most certainly local entrepreneurs has a very unusual, but very truthful answer – they will need warm ties with the consortium WYG Bulgaria.
There is no mistake! The company, registered under the Law on Obligations and Contracts, was chosen by the Ministry of Economy and Energy for the provision of consultancy support and expertise related to the programming process of the operational programme for businesses in the period from 2014 to 2020. Among the main tasks of the group, which includes WYG Bulgaria and the Polish PSDB is an analysis of the implementation of the current Competitiveness programme and making recommendations to the next one. The latter includes the determination of the priority areas for funding, including the types of measures and activities to support mechanisms and procedures for the implementation and monitoring of their potential beneficiaries, distribution of resources among the priority areas, etc. In other words, the consultant will be deciding on all subtleties about the distribution and absorption of EU money, so it’s reasonable to say that it will be this entity that will know best how and when is the most appropriate to apply for funding.
For their work, which is scheduled to continue until early July, WYG and partners will receive 348 thousand levs. Of the tender documents to select a consortium, it is clear that the competition was among five companies. The lowest bid was 322,920 levs, and the highest – 405,840 levs. But the economy ministry has chosen the union between WYG Bulgaria and PSDB because the price had only 20% weight in the final assessment.
Realistically, the authors of the new Innovation and Competitiveness programme are hardly accidental. WYG Bulgaria is part of WYG International Projects LTD – an international consulting company based in the UK. Before working for the economy ministry, the company has served the Metropolitan Municipality of Sofia, the National Association of Municipalities, the Interior Ministry, the Institute of Public Administration and others. Particular attention, however, deserves a contract between WYG Bulgaria with the Council of Ministers from 15 August 2012. It is for a period of 20 months, so it should be completed in mid-April this year. Through it, the company will receive nearly 413,000 levs to support the entire process of drafting a partnership agreement between Bulgaria and the European Union for the period 2014 to 2020. That document is a basic framework for all funds, which the country hopes to get from Brussels over the next seven years. And that it is its approval by the European Commission, which is expected later in the autumn of 2014, that will unlock the work on new editions of operational programmes and the one for rural development. So WYG Bulgaria again becomes a key player in the distribution of EU funds.
A check in the business register of Daxy showed that the manager of the company that knows all the secrets of the European benevolence is Georgi Georgiev. Data from the National Insurance Institute show that apart from him the company pays the social security contributions to just 11 more people. Currently Mr. Georgiev deals is fully engaged with the work of WYG , but from 21 May 2012 and up until July 24 2013 he was a partner in the Party LTD. Partners there were the present owners – Assen Andreev and Borislav Dragomirov. Interestingly enough, it was at the time of Georgiev that on Party LTD two distraints were imposed. One – for 618,941 euro was in favor of Choari BG Solar, and the other one (for about 1.2 million euro) – in favour of the First Investment Bank. The money was used to build photovoltaic power plant near Sliven with a capacity of 991 kilowatts. However, it seems that the plans of the investors did not happen as they had expected, since the distraints have still not been waived.
The BANKER
