E-procurement

Acting Minister of Transport, Georgi Gvozdeikov, has taken the unprecedented step of canceling the tender for the supply of 35 single-deck motor trains, valued at a staggering BGN 1.1 billion, under the ambit of the Recovery Plan. This pivotal decision was officially announced by the Ministry of Transport, marking a significant departure from the initial procurement process.

The digital modernization of the state has progressed at a rapid pace. The results have convinced us that with minimal (financial and political) costs, chronic problems can be eliminated. 

The electronic registry that is now being piloted in state procurements could prove to be yet another low-key but major leap toward transparency, if implemented correctly.

The National Agency for Integrity (ANI), in the first quarter of 2021, issued six integrity warnings to prevent conflicts of interest in connection with public procurement procedures amounting to approximately 3.2 million euros.

Ljubljana – The Court of Audit has found in a report on the efficiency of procurement of protective and medical equipment for containing the spread of the new coronavirus that, although the circumstances were extraordinary, the government, ministries and the Commodity Reserves Agency had been inefficient in the PPE procurement.

Head of the Emergency Management Department (DSU) Raed Arafat said on Thursday, referring to discussions in the public square regarding the public procurement of medical supplies during the ongoing COVID-91 pandemic, that it is "the most politicized emergency instance", underlining that the efforts of the General Emergency Management Inspectorate (IGSU) and other bodies have been "overshadowed

Ljubljana – The government has drafted changes to the public procurement act that expand the definition of low-value contracts, and under which contacts valued at over EUR 10,000 would be published exclusively on the public procurement portal. The changes also look to soften the rules for the exclusion of bidders with outstanding liabilities.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has opened a bidding procedure for the award of a public procurement contract with the subject: "Hiring of 3,000 special devices with installed software for electronic machine voting", according to the CEC's website.

Sofia. The Parliament introduced an electronic procurement platform by approving on second reading amendments to the law on public procurement, Focus News Agency reports. According to the approved texts, procurement shall be carried out by electronic means through a centralised electronic platform.

BGN 66,166 will cost the Sofia budget the recruitment of "researchers" for "preparatory research on a group of people in connection with the elaboration of a vision for the development of Sofia and the suburban territories". A further 41,000 will be spent on making a site and advertising.

In Transparency International's most recent annual Corruption Perceptions Index, Turkey ranked a lowly 75th. The country has been declining steadily on the index in recent years, as an earlier reform drive is abandoned and ordinary citizens increasingly come to see corruption as the normal way of doing things.