A company investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office will clean the roads in Kyustendil district

The promises that a new model will be imposed in road construction and maintenance for now remain empty. The so-called fast winter contracts for snow removal of the republic road network show that the usual practices still prevail.

What is more, the company selected to remove snow in the district of Kyustendil is one that the interim government led by Stefan Yanev gave to the Prosecutor’s Office. Apparently the fourth interim government of Roumen Radev did not find anything improper in this. The company is owned by a person, who was a GERB activist during the last elections, according to public records.

On top of all this the head of the Road Infrastructure Agency Ivo Ivanov switched the winner of the public procurement for the district of Haskovo with the company that currently does the job, and which is connected to a certain corpulent MP from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS). The road agency’s chief has not given any explanation for his decision, according to the published documents in the registry of public procurement.

The bottom line: three fourths of the signed contracts for snow removal and road maintenance are practically with the same companies. Five districts have new contractors: Bourgas, Varna, Kyustendil, Montana and Yambol. For the highways, only one contractor has been changed - the one for Struma highway.

No one appealed the procedures. The companies that maintained the roads up to this point in Bourgas and Varna were compensated with billions-worth contracts for the construction of the tunnel under Shipka and parts of the highway that will connect Veliko Tarnovo and Rousse.

This year the budget for snow clearing has been tripled compared to last year - from 100 million leva to 300 million. The reason is inflation. How much it will actually cost will become known at the end of winter because it depends on the weather/ for example, last year 100 million leva were allocated for snow removal but only 80 million leva were paid to the contractors, the minister of regional development Ivan Shishkov explained to Mediapool.bg.

"There is a stable financial and legal backing for winter maintenance of the national road network. The necessary funds are secured, all the contracts are signed", SHishkov said.

He thanked all the companies that they did not compromise the procedure by protesting the results and expressed hope that they will fulfill their contracts in good conscience.

In fact, there was only one attempt to appeal the procedure from StefanStroy 2010 Ltd for the district of Montana - the company won the procurement and the appeal was withdrawn.

How Georesurs with the gyms in Simitly won Kyustendil

Without a doubt, the most curious case in that of the public contract for Kyustendil district. Three candidates compete for the procurement: Megainvest-hold Ltd from Dupnitsa, Nivel Stroy Ltd from Breznik, and Georesurs Ltd from Simitly.

Until now Nivel Stroy was part of the consortium, which maintained the roads in Kyustendil. The company did not make it to the round in which the price offers are disclosed. This was the contest between the other two, and Georesurs won with a total price offer of seven million leva for a period of half a yer. The contract was from the end of October until the beginning of May. this is evident in the public procurement registry.

For comparison the company has never till now had such an income for a whole year. For 2021 its revenue totals at 4,8 million leva, and a year before - 3,2 million leva. The company has about 50 employees. To date the company does not have any experience in maintaining national road infrastructure.it has maintained roads and streets within the district of Simitly in 2019 for 257 thousand leva. This is evident in the registry of the chamber of developers.

The company Georesurs, which is registered in Simitly made headlines with renovating school gyms for more than 20 million leva. The case was made public by the interim minister of sport Andrey Kuzmanov.

During the press conference in July 2021 he said a number of suspicious contracts were signed for development and renovation of schools gyms worth a total of 21 771 428,81 leva - all signed after public procurement procedures under a program for renewal of school sports base. The contracts were signed for less than a month in December 2020 with brand new companies, registered under the Law of Obligations and Contracts,

"It was New Year's. Santa was giving gifts, this is my metaphorical explanation," Kuzmanov said back then.

In his words the most troubling fact is that most companies in the registry under the Law of Obligations and Contracts overlap and are made up of two or more companies owned by the same person. The data showed that the director of most of them is the 36-year-old Mario Georgiev Pavlov from Simitlly.

The most scandalous in each of these 26 contracts was that while the terms provided for term payment but the sums were all paid in full, said the former minister of sport Kuzmanov. Similar to the well known scheme with the in-house contracts for the Hemus highway, the dams, and the landslides.

Andrey Kuzmanov said back then that he had submitted all the materials in the case to the competent authorities, among which the Prosecutor’s Office and the Tax Authority.

By the summer of 2021 the development of no school gym had yet begun. To date, there is no information about what has happened to the monet, Mediapool failed to reach Mario Pavlov on phones provided. The current sports minister Vessela Letcheva has not announced anything publicly about 50 renovated school gyms either this year. The Prosecutor’s Office also is silent as to what has happened to the information provided.

Instead the former minister of sport from GERB Krassen Kralev was quick to respond. He said that all was done in accordance with the law and procedures and that there are no violations.

Mario Georgiev Pavlov is most likely a front. He is one of the owners of Georgresurs - VVG Ltd, which is the sole owner of Georesurs Ltd - the snow clearer in Kyustendil. The rest of the shareholders in the company are Mariana Nikolova Pavlova and Kostadin Dimitrov Dimitrov, a check in the Trande Registry shows.

Switching the winner for Haskovo district

A strange case is the case with the public procurement for Haskovo. Until now the snow removal of the national road network there was done by the notorious local company AB AD, which is said to be owned by a corpulent politician from DPS . The company received advance payments in the millions for construction of the Hemus highway.

In a public procurement for the snow clearing of Haskovo district the candidates were two: AB AD and Infra expert AD. At first, with a decision from September 20 the chairman of the Road Infrastructure agency Ivo Ivanov declared that the winner of the contract is Infra expert AD who had gathered the maximum number of points - 100.

A little over a month later, however, October 28, a decision was published in rhe public procurement registry, which changed Ivanov changed his decision and the company AB now would win the contract, although its proposal received 89.99 points. No motives for the decision were published. Mediapool could not reach the chairman of the agency by phone for comment.

Unofficially, road professionals explained that initially the company with the most points, Infra expert, had provided the cheapest price. But since both companies are owned by the same owners, they had agreed to withdraw the winning offer and this is what led to the contract being awarded to the runner up - the Haskovo based AB, whose prices were higher.

Something for everyone

In order to keep the peace and calm, and to avoid senseless lawsuits, that would jeopardize the winter maintenance of the roads, practically everyone gets something.

The Dupnitsa based holding Megainvest hold, which was removed from the competition won the procurement for snow clearing the struma highway between Sofia and Blagoevgrad. In the last years Tsvetan Tsvetanov’s Megainvest hold (no relation to the former right-hand man of ex PM Boyko Borissov) did not maintain roads from the national road system.

In Bourgas district from this winter the roads will be maintained by BGNova AD, while in Varna, from the consortium Zima Varna, in which Patishta i mostove Ltd and Patno stroitelstvo AD are part. The same union will maintain the Hemus highway on the territory of Shoumen and Varna.

The companies, which up till now maintained the roads in the two seacoast districts were connected to Veliko Zhelev. PArt of them were in consortiums with ither companies and won public procurements for the construction of the Rousse-Veliko Tarnovo highway for about one billion leva including VAT and for the tunnel under Shipka for 350 million leva.

The other change is the district of Yambol where this winter the consortium Poddarzhane 2022 consisting of Treys group hold AD and Treys BG Ltd will maintain the roads. This way Nikolay Mihaykov holding practically expands by one more district after in the last four years it had taken on only the roads in his home district of Stara Zagora.

Everywhere else, the well-known companies, which took care of the roads till now and received millions in advance payments for the Hemus highway, the high-speed Vidin-Botevgrad road, securing the landslides and dam renovations - are all present.

The big loser, if it can be called that, is the registered in Breznik Nivel stroy, which was part of the consortia, which maintained the woads in Kyustendil, Montana and Yambol. The company is one of the constructors of the Vidin-Botevgrad high speed road.