Amid lavish criticism of Bulgaria's EU funds absorption and lack of sufficient monitoring on their use, a host of ministers called on international business to become partners in EU-funded projects in Bulgaria.

This was the main message circulated at a June 16 forum in Sofia entitled EU-US Economic Partnership: honest and transparent business environment in Bulgaria. The event was co-organised by the American Chamber of Commerce and the Bulgarian-German Chamber of Commerce.

The event, attended by half a dozen ministers, businesses and representatives of trade union organisations, took place several days after the June 10 EU-US summit in Brdo, the Czech Republic, that served as the backdrop to the forum.

Meglena Plougchieva, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funds, urged international heavyweights to come to Bulgaria, apply their expertisе and help implement priority projects under all seven Bulgarian operational programmes. Plougchieva said that foreign expertise was most needed in the transportation and energy sectors, as well as in renewable energy resources projects and in the telecommunications sector.

Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev made clear a number of highways - 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10 - traversed Bulgaria and they were either in need of upgrade or extension. He underscored they could be built with international support. He also saw potential in striking private-public partnerships to this end and give a score of ports and airports, mainly mainland and on the Danube River, on concession. Foreign companies were a welcome bidder at forthcoming concession procedures for a number of ports and airports, he said. 

Bulgaria's Environment and Waters Minister Djevdet Chakurov said that Bulgaria would benefit if foreign partners took interest in the forthcoming and mandatory construction of purification installations along the Black Sea coastline.

So far only 22 municipalities have filed applications, whereas all coastal municipalities with more than 10 000 inhabitants are expected to have these projects built and operational by 2010 if Bulgaria wants to comply with the EU directive on water cleanliness on time.

Water projects are also entitled to a pool of 1.4 billion leva, according to Chakurov. With the funds endorsed under waste treatment projects, the total pool of available funds has reached 1.6 billion leva, Chakurov noted. He also said that their implementation could only occur with the help of business.

Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova spoke about progress in absorbing funds under the Human Resources operational programme, all of them aimed at bridging the chasm between theoretical knowledge passed on at vocational schools and universities and applied knowledge.

While members of Government were busy ushering foreign business into EU projects, trade union leaders and representatives of business again pointed to the lack of governmental will to develop clear-cut criteria on assigning public contracts. This encouraged corruption practices and the diverting of funds, said Evgeni Ivanov, chief executive of the Confederation of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (CICB).

A recent Audit Chamber report said that one in two public procurement contracts was plagued with violations, the main problem being with municipalities.

In that vein, Ivanov, together with Kamen Kolev, deputy head of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, called for applying the EU funds absorption rules for public contracts as well.

"The fact that the EU was so fast in taking measures against Bulgaria's improper absorption of EU funds was confirmation the monitoring system was working," Ivanov added.

As an alternative measure, Kolev offered to create a single public procurement department with the Government, as well as pointed to the lack of sufficient data in the public procurement register.

The concentration of all activities in a single body would guarantee expert capacity and would be of help to small municipalities - in particular - which suffer from lack of experts.

The two executives also called for converging the standards in the absorption of EU funds, as well as for the absorption of funds of Bulgarian taxpayers through the central and local budgets.

Representatives of business also pointed to the rampant grey economy. Plougchieva responded by saying that the Government had prepared a package of measures to clamp down on the grey economy and recalled that changes to the Public Procurement Act, the Municipal Property and State Property Acts have already been lodged in Parliament.

Business also pointed to the lack of proper dialogue with governmental institutions. Plougchieva communicated Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev's promise to take due and swift measures.