Smolyan Municipality Receives Order to Disclose Information about a Public Procurement Procedure, Following Legal Appeal by ACF

Following an appeal by the ACF, the Administrative Court – Sofia City has ordered the Municipality of Smolyan to publish the technical proposals of all participants in the public tender for the renovation and commissioning of the town’s planetarium.

In June 2023, ACF requested from the municipality copies of the technical proposals of the participants in the tender, worth BGN 1,775,975 excluding VAT. What prompted our interest was the fact that, out of three companies, eventually only one remained after the other two were eliminated because of “deficiencies in their technical proposals”. The company in question was registered two weeks after the publication of the tender notice, while its proposal showed that it planned to carry out most of its work by subcontracting. These two details are indicators of possible irregularities.

At the time, Smolyan Municipality refused to disclose the technical proposals, arguing that this was information created by the tenderers which the municipality did not have and was not obliged to provide.

In its appeal to the court, ACF pointed out that the municipality is obliged to maintain a file of all public tenders, and that technical proposals are an integral part of the tenders. In this sense, the claim that the municipality does not have this information cannot be true.

In its decision, the court noted that the information sought by the ACF was public. The Court disagreed with the municipality’s argument that it lacked this information because it had not created it. The decision recalled the fact that all information relating to a public contract should be retained for five years after the contract’s execution. In other words, the municipality is legally required to keep information and is obliged to provide it.

The court ordered Smolyan Municipality to provide ACF with the technical proposals of the tenderers within 14 days following the announcement of the decision.

The ACF is pleased that the court is protecting the public interest in ensuring that significant public funds are spent transparently and that Smolyan has a functioning planetarium that has been renovated to a high standard.

We will continue to monitor the case and inform the public if any irregularities are recorded.