Prosecutor's Office self-initiated a check into drastic differences in prices of street lighting in Sofia

Sofia City Prosecutor's Office on January 31 self-initiated an investigation in relation to media publications about allegations by a municipal councillor that Sofia city’s municipality has signed procurement contracts for street lighting at inflated prices.

The case is being investigated. All documentation on the public procurement for street lighting described in the publications is required.

Sofia city councillor Boris Bonev on January 30 said that two completely identical street lamps on opposite sides of a street in central Sofia, on one side, cost 5,755 BGN and on the other, 1,587 BGN.

Bonev alleged that the contracts that Sofia municipality had concluded showed varying prices for same materials, between 3 and 77 times higher than market ones.

He said he did an experiment and chose five items from the public procurement and bought them from a shop for 139.70 BGN. The municipality pays 910 BGN for them, he added.

One of the items cost 81 stotinki in a shop, while Sofia municipality pays BGN 17 for it, he said.

According to the municipal councilor Boris Bonev, this is happening because public procurements have been concluded with two companies in the capital. The lamps are the same, their parts are the same, their activity is the same - however, the two companies offer different prices and Sofia Municipality has signed a contract with them.

The idea of public procurement and wholesale buying is usually to offer better prices. However, the contract, which was submitted to BNT, shows that the company with the more expensive prices offers a terminal for BGN 18, which costs no more than 90 stotinki in a shop.

Deputy mayor, Kristian Krastev, said that Boris Bonev distorts the facts, because the prices of the more expensive company are compensated by cheaper maintenance, while the other company in the public procurement has a lower price for lighting, because it has offered a higher price for maintenance.

He commented only on the prices associated with construction and major repairs. He does not comment on the prices related to the subscription, Kristian Krastev, Deputy Mayor of Sofia Municipality added. I invited the companies and told them that I would not sign a contract with them unless they reduced their prices. I have managed to reduce prices in the interest of Sofia Municipality and the members of the public, he added.

In a post on Facebook soon after Bonev’s allegations, Prime Minister Petkov wrote that this case with the difference in the costs of street lamps, showed the immediate need for an anti-corruption commission with investigative functions and that a law on reforms of the anti-corruption commission was a huge priority.

“At the same time, the municipal administration tells us that Sofia did not have the budget to cover electricity prices and would reduce the frequency of public transport services.

“When we clean up corruption, then there will be a budget for everything,” PM Petkov said.

He said that on January 31, he would order an investigation.

The press office of Sofia municipality said on January 30 that by order of Mayor, Yordanka Fandukova, the municipality’s internal audit would inspect the procedures for the selection of contractors for the repair and installation of street lighting.

The inspection would include the assignment of various activities and payments for them, the municipality said.

Deputy Mayor Krastev said that the weighted average price paid by the municipality to each of the two companies responsible for street lighting in Sofia was approximately the same.

“This is because the overall assessment in street lighting contracts contains two elements – one is the prices for construction and major repairs, and the other is maintenance prices,” Krastev said.

He said that the trade strategy of one company was to give higher prices for construction and lower for maintenance of street lighting, and the other – the opposite – lower prices for construction and higher for maintenance.

Krastev said that at his request, annexes to the contracts had been signed with which the companies had agreed to reduce prices where significant differences had been noted.

"Municipal councillors, including from the opposition, had taken part in consideration of the public procurement and had not submitted “any special opinions. The open procedure for selection of a contractor for construction and maintenance of street lighting has not been appealed by any of the companies that participated," the press office of Sofia Municipality pointed out.

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