site.btaCheck at AES Maritza East 1 TPP Finds Gross Violations of Public Procurement Act

Check at AES Maritza East 1 TPP Finds Gross Violations of Public Procurement Act


Sofia, May 7 (BTA) - For 2013 and 2014, the AES Maritza East 1
TPP did not conduct even a single public procurement award
procedure under the Public Procurement Act (PPA), which is the
most serious possible violation of that law, Public Financial
Inspection Agency Director Ventsislav Georgiev told the media
here on Thursday.

Georgiev was given a hearing at a closed-door meeting of the
National Assembly Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry to Audit and
Assess the State of the Energy Sector in the Republic of
Bulgaria by January 31, 2015.

"We draw a distinction between serious violations and procedural
violations, e.g. a failure to send information when due, a
failure to release a guarantee, etc.," Georgiev explained. "A
contracting authority's failure to conduct a procurement award
procedure under the PPA is the most serious possible violation,"
he pointed out. The pecuniary penalty envisaged in the law for
this violation starts from 15,000 leva, the Director specified.
Written statements ascertaining administrative violations have
been drawn up and served on the TPP, and it can lodge objections
within the statutory time limit.

Asked how he accounts for the fact that the power plant did not
award any public procurements, Georgiev commented that up to a
time AES Maritza East 1 was not a contracting authority within
the meaning of the law, but after it became an electricity
producer, it was bound to start to award public procurements but
failed to do so. "I hope that after our check AES will already
identify themselves as a contracting authority by virtue of the
law," Georgiev said.

The check of the AES Maritza East 1 TPP was completed in April,
which is why its results are not included in the report on
checks conducted in the first quarter of 2015. That earlier
report covers the results of checks at the ContourGlobal Maritsa
East 3 TPP (the other US-owned coal-fired electric power plant
in the Maritsa Basin) and at the Bulgarian State-owned Maritsa
East 2 TPP.

At AES Maritza East 1, Georgiev's Agency checked 21 public
procurements exceeding 9 million leva in value. The inspectors
found that five procurement award procedures for over 4 million
leva were not conducted or were conducted without justification.

Serious violations of the PPA were not found in the Maritsa East
2 TPP, but nine written statements on procedural violations
were drawn up.