Around BGN 1-1,3 B are the loses for Bulgaria from corruption in public procurement procedures.

This has been announced Thursday by Konstantin Pashev, financier and representative of the Government Monitoring Association, at a press conference.

Experts say that corruption at high levels is rising, and most affected is the construction sector.

Damages caused by corruption practices in public procurement procedures are reaching 2% of the gross domestic product, Peshev said.

"50% of the the market is construction works, and together with the services they make up 2/3 of the market. This arises corruption actions, because these are contracts and orders that are very difficult to be revised and expertized, in order to establish whether the there are violation or not", he explained.

The number of companies that take part in tenders is decreasing, which shows that the corruption on higher levels is increasing, because "accidental player", quit the procedures in advance, Peshev said.

Studies make clear that the corruption is increasing each year. For example, violations connected with not-completed procedures for BGN 46 M were found in 2008, compared to BGN 30 M in 2007. According to experts, watchdogs like the Public Finance Inspection Agency have started to check only small public procurement procedures, and intentionally miss the bigger ones.

"We consider that attention must be paid, on first place, to the control, then to the appellate procedures, and finally to the bodies in the political system that allow corruption to occur", Peshev said.

The risk of corruption will be decreased if political parties funding is monitored closer, because, according to the analysis, large amount of the money is from corruption in public procurement procedures.

A possible measure is the creation of a public register of the companies who have violations, the authors of the study proposed.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!