Has Blagoevgrad Municipality Purchased Media Comfort? More Than BGN 500,000 Spent Without Any Public Scrutiny

Blagoevgrad municipality has signed contracts for media services worth BGN 511,000 for the period from eary 2018 until the end of 2019. While such contracts are not unusual in Bulgaria, the municipality, located in Southwestern Bulgaria, has chosen to allocate the funding via a mechanism which prevents any public scrutiny.

Earlier this year, the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) requested information regarding media spending from all municipal administrations in Bulgaria. Out of 27 municipalities, ony 14 presented all of the requested information. Blagoevgrad ranks second in terms of spend (the leader is Varna with BGN 740,000).

At the end of 2017, Blagoevgrad municipality created a subsidiary company, Blagoevgrad Fest, and signed with it three contracts for the provision of media services. The company is fully owned by the municipality and is the ony one to be awarded such contracts for the above-mentioned period. It is unknown whether Blagoevgrad Fest has the staff and the technical capacity to offer such services, or whether it hires media outlets as subcontractors.

Documents, available via the Bulgarian Commercial Register, show that Blagoevgrad Fest has signed a BGN 14,400 contract for information services with the publisher of local online platform Struma. The same media outlet has been awarded BGN 3,600 for similar services by Blagoevgrad municipality, although the municipal administration failed to include this contract in the information, presented to ACF.

Following the creation of Blagoevgrad Fest, the municipality no longer engages in direct commercial relationships with media outlets but uses the municipal company to allocate the funding. This is how Blagoevgrad municipality circumvents the requirement to disclose the names of all media hired to provide information services, as well as the requirement to apply all relevant provisions of the Public Procurement Act.

“This is a deeply concerning scheme which harms the public interest in a number of ways. With the decision to ignore its obligations for transparency and the relevant provisions of the Public Procurement Act, Blagoevgrad municipality bypasses all the legal guarantees for competitive bidding and for efficient and accountable management of public funds,” said Boyko Stankushev, director, ACF.

“Unfortunately, we have come across similar attempts to circumvent the Public Procurement Act not just at the local level, but at the national level as well. In a similar manner, the Road infrastructure Agency is pouring millions into the state-owned company Avtomagistrali instead of carrying out transparent tenders to determine the companies that build and maintain Bulgaria’s roads,” he said.

Blagoevgrad municipality signed three contracts with Blagoevgrad Fest:

– in March 2018, a contract worth BGN 199,186.56 with a duration of 12 months
– on 5 March 2019, a contract worth BGN 91,824 with duration until the end of the year
– in April 2019, a BGN 220,000 contract with similar duration.

The contract subject is “information and media services, provided to the mayor and the municipal administration in Blagoevgrad” and namely: coverage of events and initiatives; interviews; preparation of materials about infrastructure projects and social and cultural initiatives; international engagements of the mayor and the administration.

Among the selection criteria for media partners, the municipality has listed “fair treatment by the respective media outlet”.

Municipalities in Bulgaria publish their decisions and regulations on many platforms, including in local media outlets. The existence of contracts for media services is not of concern. What is, however, quite worrying is the existence of contracts which the public cannot review and the fact that no one can ascertain which media outlets were paid what sums and for what kinds of activities.

“With its actions, does the municipality create guarantees for media freedom and fair competition among media outlets? Is this an attempt to pay off certain outlets in order to influence public opinion? Is the “fair treatment”, mentioned in the documents, actually media comfort? These questions are even more pertinent now, several weeks before the municipal elections,” said Stankushev, a journalist with many years of experience.

ACF reviewed several other contracts available on the Blagoevgrad municipality website. In May this year, Blagoevgrad Fest was paid BGN 36,000 to develop advertising campaigns, design advertising materials, and other related activities.

The same company was assigned the coordination of national and international travel, the purchasing of airline tickets and accommodation for municipal officials, and the organization of events for the municipality. The value of the contract is BGN 350,000.

It is worth mentioning that Blagoevgrad municipality has denied ACF access to the information services contracts for 2015, 2016, and 2017 – a period when the municipal company was still not operational.
ACF was only given contracts signed between the municipality and the Bulgarian News Agency, the only media partner which agreed that the information be disclosed. The refusal of the other media partners and the municipality was motivated with the need to protect sensitive commercial information. ACF has addressed the issue at the Administrative Court – Blagoevgrad, which ruled in our favor with a decision that the contracts should be published as the information in them is of high public interest. The municipality has challenged the decision and a hearing in front of the Supreme Administrative Court is pending this December.

ACF is processing the information, obtained by all other municipal administrations, and will announce its findings shortly. One pressing issue is the presence of contract clauses to guarantee positive coverage of the work of administrators. More details will follow.