The fog around the utilization of the money under the EU operational programmes, which now allows politicians to make all sorts of speculation, will subside no later than the end of October 2015 At least, this is expected to be the result of the renovation of the Management Information System and Monitoring of Structural and Cohesion Funds (MIS). But on a little more transparency the country will have to spend millions of levs.
Days before leaving office former PM Oresharski signed a contract worth 2.232 million levs with the consortium ISUN 2020. Against this serious amount the entity registered under the Law on Obligations and Contracts, which includes Abati and New-i will need to revise and upgrade the information system used in the current period so that it may be useful up to at least 2020. To do this, the updated application will have to reflect all changes in procedures and organizational structure of the management of the programmes. Until October 30, 2015, the consortium will be obliged to also make analysis of business processes, introduce new features and maintain the system. In the job is included also the development of promotional materials to promote the project. It is unclear how much money will go on each of the activities, but if the company repeats past practice it would not be surprising that it will be the information campaign that is to swallow most of the money.
Otherwise, the performers in the consortium are well-known players. Abati JSC, owned by Borislav Mihailov and Alexander Miltenov, was among the leading companies that organized Internet census in 2011. New-i is the consulting company whose director is Silvia Todorova, Member of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Association of Consultants in European programmes. As part of the consortium KPMG Bulgaria, New-i and Sofia Consulting, the company has provided services to many government agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environment and Water, Ministry of Regional Development, the National Insurance Institute, the National Health Insurance Fund and others.
However, there is a curious detail about the millions that are spent for the maintenance and renovation of MIS. Already in 2012 the government of GERB gave 1,695,504 levs to Information Services AD for development, maintenance and updating of the system. The deadline for the execution of the first service until the end of this year and apart from modernization and improvement of the software includes training of employees identified by the client in the implementation of new features, data migration, testing and participation in acceptance testing of the respective versions of the programmes. What exactly is the point of the latter is not clear, especially since these things will be made by the hired company in any case. They are part of the second main activity and will continue until March 31, 2015. Information Services will also have the commitment to eliminate any errors in the system, add new indicators, parameters, lists, checklists, reports and statements, as well as to make changes in the software upon regulatory changes or changes in the requirements of the structures responsible for coordination, management and control of EU funds.
Not commenting on whether these tasks will duplicate some of the activities that will be paid to the consortium ISUN 2020 but what cannot be missed out is that the order was not divided into separate lots. As is well known, such methods are applied to cut off the access to random candidates and ultimately the money to go to the politically „right“ company. Combining so many activities in one procedure inevitably raises high the eligibility criteria. How many IT companies that may get involved in the development and maintenance of the system will be able to prepare also promotional materials to promote it? For this task, they need to prove previous experience.
One should also remember that in 2008, it was Information Services – then under the expert guide of the notoriously close friend of ex-PM Sergey Stanishev – Azer Melikov – won the tender of the Treasury for the establishment of MIS. This became possible after the winner from a year earlier, the Hungarian Welt 2000, and the entire tender back then to create the same information system (for several-fold less money) was canceled.
There is another problem – in the middle of 2009 the poor development of MIS Information Services was the main reason why the five assessments for the compliance with the operational programmes to be returned to Bulgaria with negative assessments by the European Commission. What is ridiculous is that then have the experts of the Ministry of Finance had to completely rework the software to get the approval of Brussels. In other words, the state paid millions for something and then made it on its own. Therefore, there would be no wonder if the current tender follows suit.
The former cabinet of Oresharski managed to sign a contract with Ballistic Cell to create an auxiliary unit (Help Desk) to the Information System Management and Monitoring of EU funds. It should start work on 1 May 2015 and ensure its effective functioning at all levels of management of structural instruments. The project is worth 216 720 levs.
The caretaker government will have the task of conducting the tender for the design and development of a Geographic Information System for the management of funds from the European Union to the MIS, for which a sum of more than 3 million levs has been provided. Its launch is expected to improve the quality of decisions taken at the central level, as well as to simplify the processes of planning, monitoring, management and evaluation of European money spending.
The BANKER
