1. The e-Procurement System in Bulgaria
Rumen Trifonov, Ph.D
Director, CCICMT

2. Procurement System in Bulgaria
Public Procurement Agency – established in 2004
Works in close cooperation with the:
National Audit Office;
Public Internal Financial Control Agency;
Commission for the Protection of Competition;
Supreme Administrative Court.
The Public Procurement System in Bulgaria is fully harmonized with the European legislation in that field. One year before Bulgaria became an EU member, following the commitments undertaken, new amendments of the public procurement law, new remedies system and new standard forms obligatory for the European Union entered into force from 01 July 2006.
The key procurement stakeholders in Bulgaria are:
the Public Procurement Agency (PPA), which was created with a Decree of the Council of Ministers on March 13, 2004 with the status of an executive agency. Its main objective is to assist the Minister of economy and energy in the implementation of the state policy in the field of public procurement.
The PPA works in close collaboration with the:
National Audit Office in Bulgaria – for the control of the contracting authorities, spending public money;
Public Internal Financial Control Agency – it carries out internal audits to the public entities as a form of ex-post control.
Commission for the Protection of Competition – an authority that is responsible for the appeals of public procurement contracts;
The Supreme Administrative Court deals with the appeals as a second-instance body.
All these bodies work in close cooperation for the implementation of common policy in the field of public procurement.

3. Legal Framework Public Procurement Law;
Rules for the implementation of public procurement law;
Ordinance for the award of public procurement notices below the threshold;
Ordinance on the award of special-purpose public procurement.
Amendments of PPL - currently.
The national legislation in the area of public procurement consists of:
The Public Procurement Law – which entered into force since October 1, 2004 and was amended in It is fully harmonized with the EU legislation in that field.
Rules for the implementation of public procurement law;
Ordinance for the award of public procurement notices below the threshold
Ordinance on the award of special-purpose public procurement.
Currently new amendments of the public procurement law are in a process of drafting in order to enhance the procurement system and to create better conditions for the implementation of the procurement legislation.

4. Public Procurement Register
Principles of transparency and accountability, free and fair competition and equal treatment of all candidates;
One of the 20 indicative e-government services;
New functionalities with possibilities for enhancement;
Based on modern ICT – one of the most powerful database management system
The Public Procurement Register has been created to enforce the basic principles of the PP Law – publicity, transparency, free and fair competition and equal treatment of all candidates. It is one of the 20 electronic services which the Bulgarian state administration offers to the citizens and business.
This is entirely new electronic database system which was designed and based on modern information and communication technologies in order to meet the requirements of the new public procurement law. (Until 2004 there existed a Register which contained information only about the procurement notices above the threshold). The new register has more functionalities and possibilities to enhance and develop them with new stages of e-procurement.
The Register was developed on the basis of the latest version of one of the most powerful database management systems – Oracle 10 g, in combination with the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server version 9 system and specialized software for cluster operation of Oracle Real Application Cluster 10g servers.

5. Possibilities of the PP Register
e-notification – information about all procedures;
Electronic submission – with universal e-signature;
Specialized software “Procurement Form Editor”
The Register contains information about all procedures for the award of public contracts – the decisions for opening a procedure for awarding of public procurement contract; procurement notices; information for awarded procurement contracts; other information. This is the so called e-notification.
The PP Register gives the authorized users who have universal e-signatures the possibility to send a procurement notice directly into the database through a cryptic connection. The documents registered through such direct electronic submission represent 9,8 % of all documents in the register for the past year. The percentage of contracting entities who use this possibility is very quickly increasing.
For those users who do not have Internet connection, a specialized software called “Procurement Form Editor” with the whole set of procurement notices has been developed. The new software gives the users the possibility to fill in the necessary standard form on their computers and then to send it for publication in the Register.

6. PPA - e-Sender
PPA – registered as e-Sender by the Publication Office of the Official Journal – May 15, 2008;
the new e-service is provided free of charge from June 1, 2008
On May 15, 2008, the Public Procurement Agency was registered as an e-Sender by the Publication Office of the Official Journal. Thus, through the information system of the Agency, the procurement documents which are submitted for publication in the register, automatically are sent to the Official Journal. Using this service, the contracting authorities will send the procurement notice simultaneously to the PP Register, to the State Gazette in Bulgaria and to the Official Journal of the EU. This new feature will save the time of the contracting entities and will decrease the deadlines. It is free of charge and is in use since June 1, 2008.

7. Public Procurement Agency Website
The Register is public and the access to the information in it is free. It can be accessed via the Agency website:
This site hosts up-to-date and comprehensive information concerning public procurement. It provides various and exhaustive information in this field – a library of legal texts, useful information for the stakeholders in the public procurement process, different lists, standard forms of notices, CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) Classifier, quick and easy access to other important websites.
An indicator for the interest and benefit of the information provided through this specialized internet site is the number of registered visits which is more than for 2007.

8. Public Procurement Register
Main information source for the public procurement;
Some statistics for 2007:
43,5 % - under PPL; 56,5 % - under the PPL threshold;
according to the type of contracting authorities: 75 % - for public entities; 25 % - for the utilities sector;
45 % of all procurement notices are for supply;
873 BG procurement procedures were notified in the OJ.
The main information source for the picture of the public procurement in Bulgaria is the PP Register as an extensive database which allows collection, analysis and synthesis of information with a different level of detail and regularity.
Another option of the Register is the possibility for every registered user to create and save a search pattern which includes a random combination of search criteria. Furthermore, when a pattern is established, a service for electronic subscription for information from the PP Register can be activated and daily information corresponding to the criteria indicated can be received at an indicated address with the new information about public contracts published in the Register.
For 2007, the number of public procurement procedures announced in the Register is while the total number of documents is 33  ,5 % of all procedures are opened pursuant to the Public Procurement Law (PPL), and 56,5 % of them are under the PPL thresholds. The distribution of the notices according to the type of contracting authorities is: 75 % – for public contracting entities and 25 % - for the utilities sector. 45 % of all procurement notices are for supply. For the first year of our EU membership, 873 Bulgarian procurement procedures were notified in the Official Journal.

9. Enhancement of the PP Register
turning the Register into a public procurement portal;
e-tendering procedure;
e-exchange of questions and answers using e-signatures
The Register functionalities now are in a process of enhancing and turning into a Public Procurement portal.
The e-tendering procedure which is now developing, will allow the upload of contract documents by the contracting entity at their own website or at a link at the Agency website and also the download of the full set of documents by the interested persons who have the right of access to these documents.
Another functionality which will be developed is the electronic exchange of clarifications (questions and answers) using e-signatures – all electronic documents exchanged between the contracting entity and the interested body should be digitally signed. The exchange of questions will be developed in both directions – asking questions upon request for clarifications and answering questions.
All these enhancements of the system are developed under a Twinning Project called ”Further improvement of the public procurement system in Bulgaria”. The project will be over at the end of July this year.
Under this project, a training centre with 25 workstations was established within the Agency. Contracting authorities, potential contractors and other stakeholders are trained in this centre.

10. e-Invoicing Developed in April 2007; Legal basis – compliant;
Still not a part of the e-procurement system.
The first e-invoicing service in Bulgaria, called eFaktura.bg was developed in April 2007 by a private company. Through this service, the suppliers fast present invoices to their buyers in an electronic manner. The supplier should sign the e-invoice with universal e-signature. This service is cost-effective, quick and easy. The first clients of this service are very few at the moment – some private companies and leasing organizations.
This system fully satisfies the legal requirements in Bulgaria – the Electronic Document and Electronic Signature Act, the Accountancy Act and the Value Added Tax Act.
This service is not used by the governmental institutions as it is still not part of the e-procurement but there exist legal and technical possibilities for its development.

11. efaktura.bg model efaktura.bg Bankservice Receiver Issuer
Sending of e-Invoice
Е-mail notification
Information for
e-Invoice status
Acknowledge receipt
of e-Invoice
On-line dispute
On-line dispute
Reconciliation
Reconciliation
e-Archive
This is a scheme of the e-invoicing model, where the so called eFaktura.bg is a third party in the process between suppliers and buyers. The advantage is that a lot of suppliers send their invoices to one point and a lot of buyers receive their invoices from various suppliers from one point again. The authenticity of the origin of the invoice and the inviolability of the contents are guaranteed through the use of a digital signature.
In conclusion I would like to say that the legal background and the technical possibilities for the development of all phases of e-procurement exist in Bulgaria. The different phases will be developed on a project basis.
e-Archive
Payment

12. Thank you for your attention! Rumen Trifonov
Director of the Coordination Center for ICMT at the
Council of Ministers, Bulgaria –
Thank for your attention.