A new Public-Private Partnership Bill to be drafted

The Public-Private Partnership Act provides for amendments to the Concessions Act in a way that woulc allow concluded concession contracts to be amended or supplemented, including with respect to the object of the concession. In this way, the construction works provided in the concession contract could be increased with up to 50 percent higher than the initially projected figure in the contract.

MPs from the opposition suspected the pursuit of lobbying interests in those provisions.

Nevertheless, the National Assembly passed the Public-Private Partnership Bill at its first reading with 75 votes in favor, 19 against and 22 abstentions. All parliamentary forces, including the GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) government, agreed that it contradicted to or did not align perfectly to nearly 10 already existing laws.

In fact, the Public-Private Partnership Bill was criticised by the reports of a number of parliamentary committees. Nevertheless, the authorities proposed that the Bill be passed at its first reading and be redrafted before its final adoption.

"As a whole, the Bill fails to comply with the effective legislation since it does not contain demarcating criteria for the precise cases, in which, public-private partnership, a public contract or concession could be concluded. It is still unclear what is the ratio between procedures to be carried out under the Laws on Public-Private Partnership, on Public Procurement, and on Concessions," read the report of the Legal Affairs Committee, chaired by Vice Chairwoman of the GERB group, Iskra Fidosova.

It is also unclear by what procedure the private partner for the contract conclusion shall be selected.
The Bill was also in conflict with the State Property Act, the Municipal Property Act and the State Aids Act.

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