Bulgaria's Road Agency Cancels €511m Motorway Crash Barrier Contract

Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency has cancelled a major 1 billion leva (€511 million) public procurement contract for motorway crash barriers.

Regional Development Minister Ivan Shishkov said that, until a new tender is launched, maintenance of crash barriers will be carried out through direct awards to the state-owned company Avtomagistrali.

Shishkov also announced that contracts for crash barriers that expired at the end of last year would be reviewed. He said that contracts initially valued at 300 million leva ultimately cost the state an additional 200 million leva following contract amendments and price indexation.

Ivan Shishkov, Minister of Regional Development: "An attempt was made to award a contract worth 1 billion leva. You can see the difference: an earlier contract worth 300 million leva ended up costing 500 million leva, and then there was an attempt to make those same crash barriers cost 1 billion leva. I have now received information from the Road Infrastructure Agency that it has completed the procedure and has officially issued a letter terminating the tender."