Mission

Ensure transparency and integrity in public procurement processes across various sectors in Bulgaria

Activities

Transparency International Bulgaria began exploring ways to serve as a civic monitor to oversee and make recommendations for improving transparency and integrity in public procurement in 1999. In the next decade, Transparency International Bulgaria monitored four tenders in fields from telecommunications privatization to municipal procurement to national highway concession contracting.

Transparency International Bulgaria signed an agreement with a contracting authority to engage in civic monitoring for the first time in 2009 to oversee the tender and contract execution of the Trakia motorway. Based on this experience, the chapter analysed the Bulgarian legal framework on public procurement and proposed a model Integrity Pact tailored to the Bulgarian context in 2011.

With support from the Siemens Integrity Initiative’s Second Funding Round, Transparency International Bulgaria developed Integrity Pacts to oversee three tenders starting in 2012. In 2015, Transparency International Bulgaria signed another cooperation agreement and developed an Integrity Pact to oversee the procurement and execution of part of the major Struma Motorway. The Contracting Authority terminated the tender process in 2017 in light of changes that had been made to the Bulgarian procurement laws.

In 2017, Transparency International Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Road Infrastructure Agency signed another cooperation agreement and Integrity Pact to oversee further tenders for construction of additional parts of the Struma Motorway, including the Zheleznitza Tunnel. This latest Integrity Pact is part of the Integrity Pacts – Civil Control Mechanisms for Safeguarding EU Funds project.

While Transparency International Bulgaria has signed cooperation agreements with contracting agencies for the tenders it oversees, it remains voluntary and at the discretion of private sector bidders and contractors to sign the Integrity Pact and taking integrity commitments upon themselves. To incentivize economic operators to do so, Transparency International Bulgaria publishes a “White List” of companies that sign the Integrity Pacts as a way of raising awareness of companies’ commitments to respect high integrity standards in the tender and execution processes.