Photo: Ivan Atanasov
An advance payment of BGN 1.3 million before consecutive elections, seven annexes, and an extension of the contract term. This is revealed in the file on the implementation of the project “Reconstruction and rehabilitation of forest roads in the municipality of Simeonovgrad.” Its purpose is to “prevent damage to forests from forest fires, natural disasters, and catastrophic events,” for which the European Commission provides grant funding.
On June 12, 2020, a tender was announced for the award of a public contract, and on October 19 of the same year, the municipality signed a grant agreement with the State Fund “Agriculture.” The project for Simeonovgrad is worth BGN 2.8 million (BGN 2,303,452.10, excluding VAT) and was won by ET “Garant – Todor Kostadinov – Petar Petrov,” registered in the municipality of Mineralni Bani. It competed for the public contract with one other participant – DZZD “Summer Work” (in the consortium “Satpro” Ltd. and “Maribor – Stroy” Ltd.).
On September 4, 2020, a commission removed the second participant and decided that “Garant – Todor Kostadinov – Petar Petrov” met the minimum standards for technical and professional capabilities.
On December 23, 2020, the contract was signed, and the work on this project is to be carried out in several forest departments. It is planned to build roads, numerous small facilities, and four reservoirs for firefighting needs, each costing over BGN 30,000.
How is unfinished work accepted?
The completion time is 180 days, as stipulated in Section III “Term of the Contract,” Article 5 (4), and begins on the date of signing Protocol Form 2 for the opening of the construction site. It was drawn up on November 15, 2021.
Two weeks later, on December 1, construction was halted for unknown reasons.
Although no work is being done on the project, on December 13, 2021, the municipality of Simeonovgrad will pay the company nearly BGN 1.4 million, or 50% of the total amount. This will happen just a few months before the next series of elections in 2022.
This amount remained at the company’s disposal for a year and four months without any construction work being carried out.
Construction resumed on March 27, 2023, with the issuance of the so-called Act 11. It ended six months later, on September 11, with the municipality issuing a Certificate of Performance, i.e., it was accepted that the work under the contract had been completed.
How this happened after the State Fund Agriculture approved the cost estimate only a month later, on October 17, is unclear. It is unclear how this happened, given that the Agriculture Fund approved the cost estimate only a month later, on October 17. On October 19, 2023, the project was completed.
Seven annexes and changes to activities
During the implementation of this project, a total of seven annexes were concluded, changing the type and scope of activities, as well as the deadline for completion.
Two of the annexes state that the forest road in section 21, behind the Zornitsa hut (owned by the husband of the mayor of the municipality, Milena Rangelova – ed.), is to be removed.
Another annex provides for the construction of new mineralized strips in the territory of the villages of Svirkovo and Simeonovgrad and the creation of forest barriers in their place. Their exact coordinates are not mentioned in the annex, and it is not possible to verify what has been done in relation to these activities.
An annex dated October 17, 2023, changed the term of the contract to 36 months.
The entire process, from selecting a contractor to making payments, raises many questions that are not answered in the file.
Why was the repair of a forest road in section 21 excluded and replaced with mineralized strips and forest barriers? Where are they?
How will the investor explain their idea of using the water reservoirs during a fire? When and how will they be filled, given that the fire department is unaware of their existence and the municipality of Simeonovgrad does not know how they will be filled with water since there is no water source nearby?
The repair of a forest road in one of the sections (near the border with the Harmanli municipality) inexplicably ends abruptly, and after about 200 meters of muddy road, the repaired road continues. It is unclear how the fire department will travel on this section.
It is interesting to note that one of the new roads is close to the plots of land that the municipality of Harmanli sold for a pittance for photovoltaic panels near the village of Polyano.
