The Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a public procurement with a pre-selected contractor

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has uploaded documentation for a public tender for the maintenance of the visa system, in which a contractor is already indicated – the company “IBS Bulgaria”. Thus, the whole procedure under the PPA turns out to be a pure proforma, or punta-mara, to use the lexicon of the Prime Minister.

This is a public procurement with the number 00105-2020-0036 “Post-warranty maintenance of the software and technical support of the National Visa Information System with two separate items” for 589 992,00 BGN without VAT. The contract is in the field of defence and security and contains classified information, therefore the technical specification is secret.

Pre-ordained selection

It is no secret, however, who should win the contract according to the MFA. This is the company“ABC Bulgaria” Ltd. with sole owner Goran Angelov. Its requisites are visible in black and white in the pre-selection package published on the website of the Public Procurement Agency for the second lot of the contract. In point 59 of the Draft Contract / Arrangement OP 2, the contractor’s details are entered, which match the address, owner and contact information of the company “IBS Bulgaria Ltd”.

The document package file is named T74601-Export-20200904.zip and has the following checksum:

SHA256: d89fe01ffc30a510b0e7688e00cdfef08da7bcc115e49bc4599bc911c1cd8944

Prior to publication, we did our best to notarize the presence of this particular file in the Public Procurement Agency’s system, and several readers of the site downloaded it and checked the checksum. It uniquely identifies each digital object. Readers’ observations are posted as a comment to a Facebook post, verifying the time of download and the content of the file.

The documents for the “pre-selection”, which according to the MFA is apparently already a foregone conclusion, were uploaded on 04 September 2020 and candidates can apply until 01 October. However, the draft contract itself was prepared earlier according to the metadata available in it. This occurred on 03 August 2020 and the last change was made on 28 August, a few days before it was uploaded to the PPA system.

The company has a solid history in public procurement, having won contracts for more than 59 million BGN on its own, and if its participation in consortia is counted, the amount swells to 73 million BGN. Clients are large state institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the State Fund for Agriculture and Rural Development, the SAC, the Customs Agency, as well as companies such as Bulgarian Post and Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, etc.

Goran Angelov’s company employs more than 70 people, according to a report in the National Social Security Institute. “IBS” is a partner, contractor or subcontractor of 13 projects of the Operational Programmes for the period 2014-2020, shows our information system. It is also the beneficiary of two OP projects for the period 2007-2013 for a total value of 568401.00 BGN “IBS is also working on project of the State Agency “Electronic Government” for the implementation of the Unified Model for requesting, payment and provision of electronic administrative services, financed with 6.9 million leva of EU funds.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already concluded several contracts with this company for a total value of BGN 1.3 million. Among them is a contract from 2018 with a similar subject as the public procurement in question for “the maintenance of the software (software licenses) of the infrastructure based on IBM platforms for the needs of the NVIS and the visa activity in the consular offices”.

The Foreign Ministry’s desire to keep the same company for the maintenance of the visa system is understandable, but the procedure under the Public Procurement Act could have been followed at least formally. BRRD has sent questions to the Foreign Ministry press office regarding this violation and will update this post upon receipt of a response.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – There was a technical error, but everything is accurate

We publish without editorial intervention the reply from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received on 9 December 2020.

“Question – In the documentation for the public procurement “Post-warranty support of the software and technical support of the National Visa Information System with two separate positions”, for which the decision on the contractor has not yet been taken, there is a draft contract in which the contractor is the company IBS. What is the explanation for this blatant violation of the PPA?

Answer – With regard to your request for an explanation of a violation of the Public Procurement Act in connection with the public procurement with the subject: ‘Post-warranty support of the software and technical support of the National Visa Information System with two lots: under Lot No. 2 entitled “Post-warranty support of the application software of the National Visa Information System (NVIS)”, we inform you that:

The data specified in Article 59(2)(2) of the draft contract for Lot No. 2 represent a technical error, given that a previous contract was used in the preparation of the model documentation, which was concluded with ABC Bulgaria Ltd – Contract No. 42/OP-D/2020. with subject: ‘Post-warranty support of the application software of the National Visa Information System’ and the information is published in the buyer’s profile at: https://www.mfa.bg/bg/zop/procurements/7263.

The error you have identified is technical and in no way can lead to the selection of a specific contractor or determine the contractor of the contract under the procedure currently under way. The citizen, whose details are given in the draft contract, is listed as the contact person and the allegations that the contractor is “I.B.S. Bulgaria” Ltd. are unfounded.

The accusations of violation of the Public Procurement Act are not substantiated as it is not specified which provisions of the law have not been complied with. The made technical error does not lead to a defect of the procedure, since it is not material within the meaning of Article 112, paragraph 4, second sentence of the Public Procurement Act, in conjunction with Article 116, paragraph 1 of the Public Procurement Act. 1(7) of the PPL. Upon conclusion of the contract with the selected contractor, the technical error would have been corrected by a contract modification. Once published, there is currently no possibility to correct the documents given the specificities of the system.

An important fact is that Decision No. 33-00-55/02.11.2020. the contracting authority has admitted to the second stage the two participants who submitted applications for participation, both of them having been found to meet the personal capacity requirements and the selection criteria set by the contracting authority.

At the next stage of the procedure, the evaluation by the committee is based on the award criterion – the lowest price, and there is no mechanism for the contracting authority to prejudge the choice of the contractor, as long as the technical proposals of the tenderers meet the requirements of the tender documentation. In accordance with the legal method of evaluation chosen by the contracting authority, the contractor should be selected to be the tenderer offering the lowest price for performance, as the capabilities of the electronic platform CAIS are to automatically rank the tenderers according to the announced award criterion “lowest price”.

The procurement documents contain requirements and conditions that are non-discriminatory, transparent and place each of the tenderers on an equal footing, and by publication in the Official Journal, as well as by the type of procedure chosen, the contracting authority has given absolute transparency to each of its procurement actions.

Any citizen who has evidence of violations of legal acts, including the Public Procurement Act and the Public Procurement and Construction Act, may submit a signal for subsequent external control by competent control bodies – the Court of Auditors and the State Financial Inspection Agency under Chapter Thirty-one, Section II of the Public Procurement Act.”

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За да научавате преди всички за нови разследвания, инсталирайте си нашето мобилно приложение:

Щом сте стигнали дотук, вероятно вече си задавате въпроса как се финансира този журналистически проект.

От създаването си BIRD се финансираше от подаяния в нашето журналистическо чекмедже.
Но на чекмеджето му мина времето. Даже прокуратурата затвори онова Чекмедже, знаете кое…
Нашето финансиране влиза в крак с епохата. Фондонабиращата ни кампания вече се казва

#МятайСБЪРД

Дарявай за BIRD и мятай павета в блатото с корумпирани политици и други тарикати.
Те тайно премятат пари от твоя джоб в своя. Те размятат безнаказано лукса си пред очите на всички. Няма кой да ги накаже ако се надяваш на държавата.
Мятай, за да ги накажеш ти. Да дариш за разследващите журналисти е гаранция, че гадостите, с които силните на деня те замерят, ще им се върнат.
Можеш да метнеш веднъж, за да ти олекне!
Но по-добре е да мяташ редовно всеки месец и да се чувстваш трайно удовлетворен.
А най-добре е да доведеш приятели и да мятаме редовно заедно в екип. С мощен залп!
*За кръстник на новата ни фондонабираща кампания избрахме другарката Ваня. Благодарим й за вдъхновението!