The PPA differentiates between classic (public) and sectorial purchasers:
- Contracting authorities, among which are the President, the Prime Minister, Ministers, mayors and other public authorities;
- Contracting entities are the sectorial purchasers operating in the water, energy, transport or postal services.
Contracting authorities (i.e. public authorities) may freely choose to apply open and restricted procedures.
Contracting authorities may apply the competitive procedure with negotiation or the competitive dialogue for:
- Contracts for which any of the following conditions are present:
- a. The needs of the contracting authority cannot be met without adapting readily available solutions;
- b. The contract includes innovation or design;
- c. The contract may not be awarded without negotiations because of specific circumstances related to the nature, the complexity or the legal and financial make-up of the contract or because of the risks attaching to it;
- d. The technical specifications cannot be established with sufficient precision by the contracting authority with reference to a standard, European Technical Assessment, common technical specification or technical references;
- e. The public procurement is for social or other special services (as listed in Annex 2 to the PPA).
- When all tenders submitted in response to an open or restricted procedure were irregular or unacceptable.
A negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used by contracting authorities:
- when no suitable tenders have been submitted in an open or restricted procedure, provided that the initial conditions of the contract are not substantially altered;
- when all tenders in a previous open or restricted procedure have exceeded the contracting entity’s financial resources; in this case all compliant participants from the previous procedure must be invited to negotiations;
- when the contract can be delivered only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons:
- a. the aim of the procurement is to create or acquire a unique work of art or artistic performance;
- b. competition is absent for technical reasons;
- c. protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights.
- when it is strictly necessary due to urgency brought about by extraordinary circumstances (unforeseeable events) for the contracting authority, the time limits, including the shortened ones, laid down for open procedures, restricted procedures and negotiated procedures with prior call for competition cannot be complied with;
- in the case of supply contracts (already signed following a public procurement procedure) for additional deliveries by the original supplier intended either as a partial replacement of supplies or installations or as the extension of existing supplies or installations, where a change of supplier would oblige the contracting entity to acquire supplies with different technical characteristics that would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance;
- for supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market;
- for bargain supplies or services supplied by an economic operator terminating its economic activity;
- when the service is awarded pursuant to a design contest, in which case the winning contestant(s) shall be invited to negotiations;
- when the repetition of construction or services awarded by the same contracting entity to the primary contractor are required, subject to fulfilment of certain additional conditions; and
- when the goods to be supplied are produced for the purposes of research, experimental, scientific or development activities in quantities that do not allow effective market placement or recovery of the research and development costs.
Contracting entities may freely choose between the open, restricted, negotiated procedure with prior call for competition and the competitive dialogue procedures.
Contracting entities may apply the negotiated procedure without prior call for competition in the above mentioned situations, applicable for public authorities, except the last one, and also:
- where a contract is purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development, and the awarded contracts do not cover production in quantities that secure enough market realization or allow the research and development costs to be recovered;
- bargain purchases, where it is possible to procure supplies by taking advantage of a particularly advantageous opportunity available for a very short time at a price considerably lower than normal market prices.
With the new Public Procurement Act, some pure e-procedures have been introduced to the Bulgarian legislation – dynamic purchasing systems, electronic auctions and electronic catalogues.
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