SMEs in Public Procurement

38. Bulgaria

38.1. SMEs in the national economy

SMEs in Bulgaria play an important role in the “non-financial business economy”. They contribute to approximately two-thirds of total employment and more than half of value added.

Table ‎38.1. Basic figures of the non-financial business economy of Bulgaria, 2015

	Number of enterprises		Number of persons employed		Value added
	Number	Share	Number	Share	(in billion EUR)	Share
Total	316 395	100.0%	1 909 777	100.0%	19.5	100.0%
SMEs	315 749	99.8%	1 450 274	66.8%	12.9	57.4%
Micro	288 956	92.8%	574 747	29.5%	4.2	21.2%
Small	22 615	6.0%	458 065	20.2%	4.3	18.0%
Medium-sized	4 178	1.0%	417 462	17.0%	4.5	18.2%
Large	646	0.2%	459 503	33.2%	6.6	42.6%

Note: These are estimates for 2015 produced by DIW Econ, based on 2008-13 figures from the Structural Business Statistics Database (Eurostat). The data cover the non-financial business economy, which includes industry, construction, trade, and services (NACE Rev. 2 sections B to J, L, M and N), but not enterprises in agriculture, forestry or fisheries, or largely non-market service sectors such as education and health. The advantage of using Eurostat data is that the statistics are harmonised and comparable across countries. The disadvantage is that for some countries the data may be different from those published by national authorities.

Source: (European Commission, 2017[1]).

38.2. National policy framework to support SMEs in public procurement

The National Strategy for Development of the Public Procurement Sector in Bulgaria over the period 2014-20 defines the objective of supporting SMEs in public procurement.

Bulgaria recognises that SMEs could benefit from public procurement rules that have been made simpler and more flexible in the new national procurement legislation, as well as from introduction of the mandatory e-procurement. More simplified procedures have been introduced for small-value procurements, as specified in Article 20 of the new public procurement legislation. Furthermore, the law provides the possibility of direct payments made to subcontractors, sets the limit on turnover requirements, and establishes the use of a single procurement document. Bulgaria also maintains a freely accessible public procurement register and portal that contains information on open tenders.

The Directorate of Central Purchasing and Public Procurement (CPPP) under the Ministry of Finance is entrusted with the responsibilities of central purchasing in Bulgaria. The CPPP has undertaken several measures to facilitate SME access to the public procurement market. These include proportionate selection criteria, wider publicity of procurement opportunities, and development of the e-procurement system, SEVOP, which also supports e-submission and e-evaluation.

Furthermore, the National Innovation Fund, based on Horizon 2020 (EU research and innovation programme) and the Small Business Act, identifies SMEs as one of the main target groups in developing innovation initiatives.

38.3. Implementation mechanisms

Bulgaria has published the Implementation Plan of the National Strategy for Development of the Public Procurement Sector in Bulgaria.1 The Plan sets out detailed activities and defines responsible institutions and timelines for each activity area.

The CPPP organised training on the use of the e-procurement system for economic operators in 2015. Representatives of the operators, including SMEs, attended the training, which specifically dealt with electronic submission of bids. The e-procurement platform, SEVOP, is fully operational as of 2015. All CPB procurement procedures for framework agreements as well as mini-competitions for award of specific contracts are announced through SEVOP, and bids are received and evaluated through the platform as of 2016.

38.4. Monitoring performance

Public Procurement Agency maintains a statistical database containing information on the public procurement market and publishes results annually.2 Certain information – such as number of public procurement procedures, small notices and visits to the public procurement portal – are published on a monthly basis. However, SME-specific data – such as their participation in the public procurement market – are not aggregated and published.

Reference

[1] European Commission (2017), SBA Fact Sheets 2016, http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/22382.

Notes

← 1.  www.aop.bg/fckedit2/user/File/en/novini/IP_%202014_EN.pdf

← 2.  http://rop3-app1.aop.bg:7778/portal/page?_pageid=173,1710276&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL