Bribes in the public procurement sector exceed BGN 1 bn in 2009

Over BGN 1 bn in bribes were given for the conclusion of public procurement contracts in 2009, estimated for Klassa Kamen Kolev, Deputy Chairman of BIA (Bulgarian Industrial Association). According to the Chamber’s estimates and those of other independent experts, the total inefficiency of the contracts was between 10% and 20%, and violations were established in at least 30% of the projects under the European operational programmes. 
By  comparison, the total amount of bribes in 2005 stood at BGN 280 mln, according to a study conducted by BIA. This means that corrupt practices have increased by BGN 720 mln over the last 5 years.
According to data from the Public Procurement Agency (PPA), a total of 13,566 contracts were signed in 2009, amounting to BGN 10.440 bn, VAT excluded.
Kolev suggested that the large amount of bribes has given Finance Minister Djankov reasons to offer 10% less money from the budget when there are immediate payments on contracts to contracting companies. Some people have referred to this as extortion and said that not all companies can afford to scrape together these 10% from their payments.
BIA experts propose unnecessarily harsh conditions on contracts to be removed and greater access of SMEs to the tenders to be ensured. Monitoring of the experts from the Chamber shows that most of the technical projects assignments ignore Bulgarian companies a priori. "This was the problem with the absorption of funds under ISPA - we could not ensure participation of Bulgarian companies on an equal footing with respect to the tenders for the construction of transport corridors.
Our calculations indicate that about 20% of the contracts were won by Bulgarian companies, while the remaining 80 % - by foreign bidders," said Kolev. He pointed out that the Czech Republic and Estonia managed to make sure that about 90-95% of the money under the pre-accession programmes was distributed among local companies.