site.btaEU Commissioner Bienkowska, Deputy PM Donchev Discuss Access to Procurement Markets

Sofia, June 15 (BTA) - EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elzbieta Bienkowska and Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev attended here on Friday a conference on improving access to procurement markets.

Bienkowska noted that having efficient and well-functioning system for legal protection means is important for public procurements overall. It must be guaranteed that projects are not delayed over lawsuit abuse, the EU Commissioner said, adding that she often hears about this problem in EU Member States.

Deputy PM Donchev gave as an example the procedure for building the road toll system in Bulgaria, which is being appealed for over a year now. He said that the State has already suffered over a billion in damages from unrealized revenue. Donchev gave some tragicomic cases when a janitor appealed a tender for building a complicated system, while a company selling socks appealed a software development procurement procedure.

Donchev said that the goal is to limit the cases of abusing the right to appeal in order to extort contracting authorities or candidates in procurement procedures. He noted that at European level talks are underway for amending the relevant directives, while efforts are being made in Bulgaria to make the grounds for appealing a procedure more clear within the given directive. Bulgarian legislation settles the possibility for a contracting authority, who has suffered damages from an unlawful appeal, to hold the abuser responsible in court. He explained that these steps are not expected to drastically change the situation, but rather to refine it.