All open public tenders to promote the programme for development of rural areas, which have no signed contracts so far, have been terminated by the Minister of Agriculture and Food of Bulgaria Dimitar Grekov. These are about a dozen of auctions, half of which announced at the end of 2012, that, against several million levs, supposed to promote the European funding schemes locally.
As the BANKER repeatedly wrote such an effort would be futile because of the closure of the programming period 2007-2013. But the leadership of the agricultural ministry was hoping with the release of these procedures to acquire as many resources as possible and thus to fulfill its commitment to the advertising and PR agencies that redistributed the money between themselves. Because of the many reshuffles in the government last year, the time for the completion of the scheme expired and the current Minister Grekov was seen forced to stop the financial bliss that has been flowing from the Ministry to the respective corporate sector in recent years.
Among the procedures canceled is the one for publication of slots and PR materials and information in regional newspapers for a period of 12 months and a budget of 720,000 levs. It was part of one of the largest media orders of former Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov, under which in April 2013 a contract for 670,000 levs was signed with Grain Advertising. Against the money the firm, owned by Martin Batkov now provides slots in national dailies and weeklies.
The competition for the creation and maintenance of a permanent advisory column for the Rural Development Programme in the newspapers Bulgarski Fermer and Agroweekend has also been stopped. It had to assist farmers in the development or implementation of their business plans. The budget for this activity was 360,000 levs. The procedure itself was also first announced by the former Minister Naydenov – in September 2012, but for different reasons it never came to the signing of a contract. Now his successor Dimitar Grekov has concluded that there is no need for such kind of support.
The same is the situation with the tender for creation of a consultancy column in specialized magazines Arozona, Agrokompass and Agrobusiness and newspaper New Farmer and Agro Gazette against 420,000 levs.
Another tender from the time of Miroslav Naydenov, which will not happen, is the one to organize ranking in Farmer, Young Farmers, Organic Producers and Keeper of the Year. For this purpose, 240,000 levs was set aside but now the money will likely be returned to Brussels.
The BANKER
