A year after the fire, the repair of Tryavna’s art school is still blocked by appeals

A year after the roof of the National School of Applied Arts “Tryavna School” was destroyed by fire, work to restore the building still cannot begin. Although the summer months are the most suitable time for construction, the school must wait for a ruling from Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) on an appeal against the selection of a contractor.

The case reached the SAC after the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) published its decision on 8 April this year rejecting a complaint from “Restavratsia 02”, the company ranked second in the public procurement launched by the Ministry of Culture for the preparation of the technical design, construction works and author supervision for the repair and restoration of the school building.

The CPC’s decision is not final and was appealed within the statutory deadline. As of the date of this publication, no case had yet been formally opened at the SAC, according to a check by “Za Istinata”. This means that, in the best-case scenario, no development can be expected before the end of June on a repair that is already urgently needed by the school.

CPC rejects all objections

The competition regulator rejected all of “Restavratsia 02”’s objections as unfounded.

These included claims about insufficient evidence of the company’s reliability, a lack of adequate reasoning concerning its capacity to carry out the contract, inconsistencies in the technical proposal, insufficient scrutiny of details in the winning bid and doubts about the expertise of the evaluation committee.

The CPC therefore rejected the complaint, as well as the company’s request for reimbursement of its legal costs.

Four companies submitted bids to carry out the restoration of the National School of Applied Arts.

The evaluation committee ranked first the “Karst-Art-Ernst-Studio” consortium from Blagoevgrad, with an offer of €828,000, against an estimated contract value of €854,000 excluding VAT.

After two companies were excluded because their offers failed to meet the conditions set by the contracting authority, the final ranking came down to “Karst-Art-Ernst-Studio” in first place and “Restavratsia 02” in second.

The decision was signed by Marian Bachev, the culture minister in the government of Rosen Zhelyazkov.

The minister’s responsibility

The delay in restoring the school can also be traced back to the actions of Bachev and the Zhelyazkov government.

Had funding for the restoration not been delayed and the public procurement been launched soon after the fire, a full year might not have passed without work beginning, while pupils continue to study in other buildings and the school’s head does not know whether a second academic year will begin without a permanent roof.

MP Elisaveta Belobradova made a similar assessment after visiting the school in early May and meeting its director, Orfey Mindov.

“The school is being forced to wait for the court’s decision before it can restore its roof. Ironically, the school has been ordered by the Regional Health Inspectorate to restore the roof by September or face a fine,” Belobradova wrote on Facebook.

“The current temporary roof, which literally covers the rooms to keep the rain out, was donated by a local entrepreneur. The remaining section of the roof that needs to be replaced leaks every month, and every month the school spends €1,500 replacing plastic sheeting and maintaining this catastrophic temporary solution,” she added.

The building is in extremely poor condition

According to the technical assessment prepared after the fire and included in the public procurement documentation, the condition of the building is extremely serious.

The timber roof structure over the central south-western section and the eastern wing was completely destroyed, as was the attic timber framing above those areas, including above the gymnasium.

Sections of brickwork have collapsed or been badly burned, leaving them with reduced load-bearing capacity and requiring reconstruction.

Serious structural damage has also been identified that affects the overall stability of the building. The premises have therefore been prohibited from use and a comprehensive reconstruction is required, including the restoration or replacement of structural elements.

A burned and sagging reinforced-concrete slab was also found in the middle section of the eastern wing and will require strengthening.

The condition of the school requires urgent action, but procedural obstacles continue to postpone the actual start of the restoration.

The outlook remains uncertain

The fate of the urgently needed repair is now tied to the court proceedings.

With the procurement dispute before the Supreme Administrative Court, the school has no choice but to wait for the ruling.

The court could either reject “Restavratsia 02”’s appeal or send the procedure back to the Ministry of Culture for a new decision if it identifies irregularities.

That would create another two possible scenarios: the evaluation committee could confirm its original choice or change the ranking.

Either way, the decision could once again be challenged.

And if that happens, there is no realistic way to predict when the renovation of the fire-damaged school in Tryavna will finally begin.