PM Petkov vs. Minister Karadzhov: Who is to blame for suspended road repairs?

The government has accused the management of the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) of unilaterally suspending all new public procurement tenders for the ongoing repair and maintenance of the national road network.

The Ministry of Finance said that it will refer the matter to the State Financial Inspection Agency and expects the Prosecutor's office and the Court of Auditors to also make their own inquiries. Outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov called on Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Grozdan Karadzhov, to dismiss the head of the road agency.

Karadzhov said that not RIA, but the Commission for Protection of Competition cancelled the public procurements for roads and that PM Kiril Petkov was to blame for that.

The reaction of the regional development ministry, the principal of RIA, was not delayed and Grozdan Karadzhov responded to all the accusations.

The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works earlier today, July 27, gave a briefing in connection with the suspended procurements for road repair and maintenance.

"Obviously we are in an election campaign as soon as “We Continue the Change” (WCC) started exercising on the topic of roads. This morning's press conference is nothing more than a pathetic attempt by PM Kiril Petkov and WCC to transfer the problem from the sick head to the healthy one," said outgoing Regional Developmet Minister Grozdan Karadzhov (from “There is Such a People”).

It is not RIA that has cancelled the decisions on public procurement tenders for road repair and maintenance - they have been cancelled by six successive decisions of the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) as a result of an appeal against the tender documentation itself, he announced.

"These procurements could not have gone to the stage of submission of documents at all, nor to the selection of a contractor. Why the decisions of the CPC became clear only at the end of June for the contracts that date back to April is neither within the competence of the RIA nor the Ministry of Regional Development," Karadzhov said.

Yesterday it became clear that the Road Infrastructure Agency unilaterally suspended all new public procurements for current repair and maintenance of the republican road network.

Earlier today, at a briefing at the Council of Ministers, Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Tsekov announced that the state will be deprived of road maintenance for the next 6-7 months. This is the time that is technologically necessary to carry out a public procurement.

More interesting are the CPC's reasons for terminating the procedures - according to them, the conditions set by the Ministry of Regional Development were "too restrictive and in favour of the state only", the minister said.

"In this case, we have protected the state interest, which, according to the CPC, is excessive and violates the rules of competition, but to protect the interest of the state and at the same time to endure accusations of helping companies of the mafia, thieving companies, as Kiril Petkov calls them, it would be some terrible invention in history that I have made - both to restrict them and to tolerate them," minister Karadzhov said.

It is PM Kiril Petkov's fault, because I and the experts from the Ministry of Regional Development and the RIA were in his cabinet when they (the cabinet - ed.note) insisted on maximum restrictions.

"It was him, Kiril Petkov, talking about how we have been arguing about 60:40, about 80:20 and about the other conditions of the orders. This is the natural result of the Prime Minister constantly interfering in public procurement and how the money of RIA is spent."

Why are the public procurements announced in April - by law they are announced when you have a budget for the year and a so-called commitment for the following years, when the procurement extends over a longer period, Karadzhov explained.

"The public procurement is for BGN 3.6 billion. - Such a budget was never in the estimates of the previous years. Therefore, we had to wait for the adoption of the budget, its entry into force on March 26 and on March 31 we sent them to the Ministry of Finance by letter for coordination. We then discussed them with the Prime Minister."

The problem with the September 30 deadline (when the old contracts are to be terminated - ed.note) stems from Kiril Petkov's personal insistence that the Parliament’s decision on the road repairs should include a condition that a possible caretaker government of Rumen Radev should not be able to pay the construction companies, Grozdan Karadzhov added.

He urged that in the remaining final ldays of the Parliament, the date of 30 September be removed and until then to negotiate with companies to do work on the roads until new contractors are chosen.

As a reason for the suspension of the procurements, RIA yesterday pointed to "deficiencies in the tender documentation" - documentation proposed by the road agency itself. The procurements were announced in April to replace existing contracts that were found to have flawed construction practices and are subject to checks by the competent authorities.

At the same time, road construction companies went on an indefinite strike over outstanding payments for work already completed. The protests will be daily in front of the Parliament and around 20 key road sections across the country. According to road builders, the state has not paid about 720 million BGN to about 80 companies for works carried out.