Public tenders only
After Bulgaria joins the European Union, scheduled for January 1 2007, all projects financed by European funds will be awarded by public procurement procedures. Such is provided by a set of amendments to the Public Procurement Act, to become effective from July 1. The tenders will be organised by the beneficiaries. Contractors will cash their invoices after completion of the projects and all documents will be kept for at least five years. The main body that will approve the projects for financing is the monitoring committee, which will include representatives of the administration, local authorities, trade unions and employers. The technical issues will be dealt with by directorates at six ministries, also known as the managing bodies.

Pension increase
The National Social Security Institute approved a decision allowing the Government to raise pensions as of July 1 in accordance with the budget framework for this year. This is the second pension increase for the year after the one effected in January. The average pension growth will be five per cent, including a 17 per cent increase in the minimum pension for work experience, five per cent for pensions below 120 leva a month, and four per cent for pensions in the range of 120 leva to 150 leva. The precise adjustments will be decided by the Government. The total cost of the pension increase is estimated at 74 million leva, or 0.16 per cent of the projected full-year GDP. The annual average pension increase resulting from the two-step increase in January and July is projected at 11 per cent.

Mutual fund index
The first mutual fund index in Bulgaria will start operations within two months. Alfa Asset Management, the index's managing company, has submitted a prospectus to the Financial Supervision Commission for the initial public offering of units of Alfa Index Top 15. The fund portfolio will include the 15-largest and most-liquid companies on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange with a combined market capitalisation of 5.44 billion leva. The value of the assets of Alfa Index Top 15 will mirror the movement of the Dnevnik 15 index.

Wheat crop forecast
Bulgaria's 2006 wheat crop is expected to amount to three million tons, said Deputy Agriculture Minister Svetla Bachvarova at a meeting with protesting grain producers in Stara Zagora on June 19. Legal amendments will be approved by this month's end that will allow the drafting of new regulations for preferential excise duty rates on fuels used in agriculture. The existing regulations are ineffective, the deputy minister confessed, and invited representatives of the farmers to the June 26 meeting of the consultative council on grain. If measures are not urgently taken to solve the problem with the excise on fuels, many agricultural co-operatives will practically go bankrupt, farmers said. They also insist on a minimum state subsidy of 30 leva a hectare. Agricultural producers in Pleven joined in, demanding a buy-out price of 190-200 leva a ton of wheat from the Government.