Draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Public Procurement

PROF. KOSTADIN ANGELOV
MINISTER OF HEALTH

Mr. Kiril Ananiev
MINISTER OF FINANCE

Mr. LACHEZAR BORISOV
MINISTER OF THE ECONOMY

CONCERNING: Draft Law amending and supplementing the Law on Public Procurement

DEAR MR ANGELOV,

DEAR MR ANANIEV,

DEAR MR BORISOV,

In connection with the draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Public Procurement published for public discussion, the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, after consultation with representatives from the "Health" sector, expresses full support for the position expressed by the Bulgarian Hospital Association, a collective member of KRIB, position on the proposed bill to amend and supplement the Law on Public Procurement and, more specifically, in the part where the status of medical institutions is changed, by dropping the requirement for the type of ownership and all private medical institutions are defined as public procurement contractors.

According to the studies carried out by the representatives of the Bulgarian Hospital Association, in the legislation of the EU member states, medical institutions that are privately owned do not fall under the scope of "public procurement". This is because, on the one hand, they are professionally responsible for timely diagnosis and treatment of their patients, and on the other hand, for financing the costs of treatment in the optimal way for the parties. In this sense, every management of a medical facility is committed to providing supplies of medicines and consumables at the best possible /lowest/ price in order to minimize losses.

In this regard, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that Directive No. 2014/34/EU of the European Parliament of the Council of February 26, 2014 on public procurement, private hospitals are not public-law organizations and therefore should not apply to them the norms of the ZOP apply.

In support of our stated position, we also apply the practice of EU member states, namely:

German legislation is harmonized with Directive 2014/24/EU, the applicable legislation being Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen (GWB), Verordnung über die Vergabe öffentlicher Aufträge (VgV), Vergabe- und Vertragsordnung für Bauleistungen (VOB), Vergabe- und Vertragsordnung für Leistungen ( VOL).

In Art. 98 and Art. 99 of the GWB definitions of contracting authorities are given, the understanding of German law overlapping with the definition of the Public Law Organizations Directive.

Private hospitals do not fall under the definition of a public-law organization, with limited exceptions such as church hospitals (Catholic, etc.), which are not for profit and fall under public procurement norms.

According to Austrian legislation, private hospitals do not fall under the definition of a public organization, according to Art. 4 of the BVergG and do not apply the legislation in the field of public procurement.

Austria has successfully harmonized the legislation applicable to the country - BVergG 2018 - Bundesvergabegesetz 2018 with Directive 2014/24/EU.

In Art. 4 of the BVergG the definitions of contracting authorities are given, and the understanding of Austrian law also overlaps with the definition of the Public Law Organizations Directive.

In Great Britain, although already outside the EU, but not at the time of the introduction of the relevant legal norms - private hospitals in the UK fall under the column "private providers", which is why they do not fall into the applicable field of the directive, as the applicable legislation is The Public Procurement Regulations, The Public Contracts Regulation, The Single Source Contract and harmonized with Directive 2014/24/EU. The main contracting authority in the UK is the NHS.

With respect,

Eugene Ivanov

Ex. Director and member of the Management Board