Cost of Public Procurement Appeal in Bulgaria To Grow by up to 8 Times

The fees for appealing public procurement deals at Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition (KZK) may increase by up to 8 times.

According to draft changes to an ordinance of the Council of Ministers agreed by Deputy Prime Ministers Zinaida Zlatanova and Daniela Bobeva, the minimum fee is to amount to at least BGN 850 and the maximum amount is to increase to BGN 15 000.

Currently, public procurement appeals cost BGN 600 – 1700, according to econ.bg.

The increase in the cost of appeals aims to reduce the number of complaints at the watchdog in order to facilitate the absorption of EU funding.

According to a report on the draft changes, as much as 15.08% out of a total of 11 939 public procurement procedures in 2013 were appealed.

According to KZK statistics for 2013, as cited by Trud daily, some 30-40% of the public procurement appeals belonged to two groups: violations accompanying the announcement of the public procurement, which were made to benefit a concrete company, and violations in the awarding of the public procurement, where a concrete participant was given preferential treatment.

In 2013, Bulgaria's anti-trust watchdog collected over BGN 3.5 M from fees for public procurement appeals.

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