Bulgarian MPs pass bill mandating centralised public procurement electronic platform
Bulgaria’s Parliament adopted on October 4 a bill of amendments to the Public Procurement Act that envisions the creation of a new centralised electronic platform for public procurement tenders.
The bill transposes a series of requirements from European Union’s 2014 directive on public procurement and describes in detail the functionality of the future platform.
That includes the ability to publish all the necessary tender documentation, allowing prospective bidders to make inquiries and receive replies, but also assessing bids, contract signing and handling electronic invoices and connectivity to electronic payment systems.
Although the bill set no firm date for the introduction of the new platform, a number of provisions concerning the functioning of the platform will not go into effect until January 1 2021.
All tender information is to remain public for a period of three years after the tender has concluded, after which the bill envisions archiving the information for a further five years.
Socialist opposition MPs had suggested that such information should be kept indefinitely, as is the practice in the Trade Register. GERB MP Danail Kirillov, chairperson of Parliament’s legal committee, said that while he agreed in principle, that was not currently technically possible, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
(Bulgarian Parliament photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
