Responses from Avtomagistrali and Its Subcontractors Fail to Dispel Concerns

On Friday, we received a response from the state-owned company Avtomagistrali EAD, which was contracted by the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) to carry out repairs on the Trakia Motorway that caused major traffic jams at the end of June. The total value of the public procurement contract amounts to millions of euros.

An ACF review found that some of the works had been subcontracted to Nivel Stroy EOOD, a company linked to Hristoforos Amanatidis, known as Taki, and to European Roads AD, a company implicated in the scandal involving the missing BGN 54 million earmarked for the construction of the Hemus Motorway. Social media posts also showed that another company involved in Hemusgate, Groma Hold EOOD, was carrying out repair works on site.

However, the statements issued by Avtomagistrali EAD and the other companies following ACF’s investigation do not dispel the concerns surrounding the implementation of the public procurement contract:

1. Key questions remain unanswered

We sent four specific questions to Avtomagistrali EAD. The company failed to answer two of them — namely, what specific works Avtomagistrali itself and Nivel Stroy carried out using their own resources.

2. False information was provided

The state-owned company claims that the subcontracting agreement with European Roads AD has been published in CAIS EOP, the electronic public procurement system. This is not true.

Although both companies confirm that such an agreement exists, no information about it is publicly available.

3. Works were clearly subcontracted

According to Avtomagistrali, the contracts do not specify in advance a fixed volume of work to be carried out by subcontractors; instead, specific activities are assigned to them only when the need arises.

However, the companies’ own responses make clear that such a “need” did arise and that a significant volume of work was subcontracted.

European Roads AD states that it rehabilitated three sections with a total length of 37.74 km, milled more than 430,000 sq. m of road surface, and laid nearly 150,000 tonnes of asphalt mixtures.

Nivel Stroy EOOD also states that it carried out milling works, asphalt paving, as well as repairs and cleaning of drainage facilities.

4. The agreement with European Roads should be public

European Roads AD claims that its agreement with Avtomagistrali is an ordinary commercial contract between independent legal entities and that the law does not require it to be published.

This position is inconsistent with the applicable legal framework.

Avtomagistrali is a wholly state-owned company and is subject to the Access to Public Information Act. In addition, as a contractor under a public procurement procedure governed by the Public Procurement Act, the company is required to provide RIA with information and contracts concerning the subcontractors it uses.

RIA, in turn, is required to publish those contracts within 30 days.

Therefore, the agreement between Avtomagistrali and European Roads cannot be treated solely as a private commercial document that is exempt from public disclosure.

ACF continues to seek answers to the following questions:

• Why does RIA award repair works to the state-owned company Avtomagistrali EAD when it has been known since 2021 that the company lacks the necessary capacity to perform them?
• What specific work was carried out by the state-owned company, and what activities were performed by each of its subcontractors?
• Why has the agreement between Avtomagistrali EAD and European Roads AD not been published among the publicly available documents relating to the public procurement procedure?
• Why are employees of Groma Hold EOOD carrying out repair works on site, and does this not place the company in the position of a subcontractor to European Roads, given that such further subcontracting would be in breach of the contract between RIA and Avtomagistrali?
• Does the transfer of activities to a third party, namely Groma Hold EOOD, not constitute circumvention of the law and the concealed allocation of public funds to a private company that is not a party…