Jan Skvaril, Managing partner of HLB Bulgaria, shared findings from an analysis of the reports of the supervisory authorities in the field of public procurement, and studies of non-governmental organizations: “We have identified three main groups of causes leading to the problems and disorders in the field of public procurement. These are relatively frequent changes in legislation. The second group is non-compliance with the law and corruption practices. Third group which we consider the most important is the human factor, and in particular the lack of qualification of the persons engaged in planning, procurement and execution of contracts.”

Jan Skvaril added that Bulgaria is not the only country struggling with problems in public procurement: “In my native Czech Republic major change in the PPA was made in April 2012. Recent survey of agency “Otidea” performed among 500 assignors and 150 contractors showed that:

• 95% of companies still faced with pre-adjusted orders;
• 85% of the assignors prefer to apply price as a single criterion for the economically most advantageous offer, being afraid of attacks on the transparency of the procedure;
• 60% of the contractors admitted that there were cases when offered dumping price below cost of contract;
• 90% of assignors and 80% of contractors believe that the dumping prices of tenders for construction works may endanger the safety of the facilities.”

HLB Bulgaria together with VUZF developed specific training program and created “Academy for public procurement”, to provide the opportunity to acquire knowledge and qualification to all persons involved in the implementation of the law on public procurement.