Would one believe that state institutions in Bulgaria are just like the enterprise of the Silicon Valley, or at least like a high-tech company? Probably not, if we judge by the fact that for the state administration electronic services are taboo, the official correspondence can not be made online, while video links and conference calls could not at all be imagined, and even documentation for procurement of some departments is still only in paper form and shall be paid for. And yet the lean state budget easily spends thousands of euros for all sorts of tech gadgets to make MPs and staff in the ministries happier. The same was the situation last year, and the year before. Separately, major projects for the introduction of e-government must be enumerated, which are funded by tens of millions of euros from the Operational Programme Administrative Capacity. In other words local officials should be provided with the most modern equipment.
Days ago the Ministry of Environment and Water announced another procedure for purchasing computers and peripherals. This particular time it’s about 239 desktops, 48 laptops, five servers, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and disk array. It is estimated that this, together with installation and warranty maintenance will cost about 430,000 levs. Seemingly this is a great initiative – it will help modernize the institutions and officials will start working more efficiently and ultimately the country will get out of the environmental quagmire in which it is mired. Alas, we can safely say that this will not happen. Just because this is scenario we have already seen. A number of times.
A little over a year the state bought over 340 working machines, 60 printers, communication equipment and other equipment to support the work of the operational programme Environment. For the technique in question 1,552,496 levs was spent, and two-thirds of the money went to the Acsior Ltd of Plamen Chiripov and Dimitar Vassilev. The other winners were Kontrax, Partners and DGtech. But what was the benefit of the whole IT equipment deal after the European Commission has suspended the payments under it programme to Bulgaria?
Time ago another 722,995 levs was givenm for the supply of 259 personal computers, 314 monitors, 19 laptops and 50 workstations for geographic information systems (GIS). Contractor for this contract was the already mentioned Kontrax of Jordan Yordanov.
The bottom line shows that only since 2012 onwards, the Ministry of Environment and Water has bought over 600 computers and will buy additional 300 machines. But according to the administrative record, the ministry employs only around 400 people. And having in mind that the normal life cycle these devices is about five years, one can not help but question what happens to the old ones. Because we do not believe any official works on two computers simultaneously. Of course the BANKER made an official request to the Ministry of Environment for the fate of machinery – whether the machines are scrapped sold and who takes care for the deletion of the information in them? We also asked what creates the need of such frequent change of these devices. The Ministry answered that each year an inventory committee that includes an examiner from Information Services tracks the deletion of information in computer configurations that then are brought to liquidation. With the establishment of unfitness of the devices, the Commission proposed devices to go for scrap material. This process is assessed and a protocol is filed. After issuance of the unfitness certificate the computer equipment is liquidated, which means it is transmitted to organizations operating waste services of electrical or electronic equipment, explained the representatives of the ministry.
As to the purpose of the last tender, the Ministry told the Banker that they will only upgrade IT equipment purchased no later than 2007. In the period 2007 – 2013, the Central Administration of the Ministry of Environment and Water has acquired 465 units of computing configurations. Of the older 71 ones only 19 machines can use operating system Windows7. The purchased computer configurations for the Environment Ministry for the period 2009 – 2013 (with possibly life-cycle of about five years) were 334 in number, say representatives of the ministry. Furthermore, computer stations were offered not only to employees, but also to junior experts drawn under the Career Start programme of the Employment Agency, which in 2014 hired nine people, six for the auditors of the Supreme Auditing Office, and 10 computers for auditors of the Operational Programme Environment – both desktop and notebook computers.
Unfortunately the speed buying of computers is not unique to the Ministry of Environment. The Minsitry of Economy paid 1,074 levs per computer to Komsoft Ltd. for 110 new desktops and 1,767 levs for the supply of 10 luxury laptops. Monitors for the PCs were ordered from Lirex BG, at the average cost of 230 levs each. The benefits continue with 17 scanners coming to 1,834 levs each, provided by Kontrax and 10 laser printers, the supplier for which was Partners. More than curious is the fact that the transaction took place only eight months after the agency gave nearly 300,000 levs for 150 desktop computers with monitors, 30 scanners and multifunction devices, net storage system and multiple servers. The devices were supplied by Stemo, VUDU and Partners.
In September 2013 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a contract with Kontrax for the supply of fifteen extremely powerful computer systems that cost over 32 thousand levss. Now another tender is under way. It is for the purchase of 100 computers, as many digital cameras, 20 fingerprint biometric scanners and 15 mobile stations. The estimated cost is 516 thousand levs.
Similar are the tenders of the Ministry of Finance. Late last year it paid 1,022,883 levs without VAT to Paraflow Communications, Index Bulgaria, Kontrax and Lirex BG for 61 desktop computer systems, 13 scanners, 10 handheld portable scanners, 61 uninterruptible power supplies, five tablets, a multifunctional copier and equipment for the processing, storage and data replication. All this shopping spree by the Finance Minsitry took place less than a year after the purchase of 100 desktop computers, 35 laptops, 85 monitors, 45 laser printer, 10 scanners, seven servers, three UPS systems and one color multifunctional device. For them the terasury paid more than 300 thousand levs to the well-known Kontrax, CNsys, Lirex BG, and also DGTech, Stone Computers and Prime Technologies.
