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The Health Insurance Fund Regional Office in Burgas
Violated the APIA, the Court Stepped In

Doctor Maksheva refused to provide access to information
to the Institute for Legal Analyses and Research

Silvia Shatarova

Institute for Legal Analyses and Research (ILAR)
http://ipai-bg.eu/

ILAR is found in 2009 in order to enhance the capacity of an organized and active civil society by performing independent monitoring and impartial civil control over the work of the state and municipal public bodies. ILAR works aims at accessible, transparent and timely justice, administered by an open judiciary, equality, fairness and predictability of public institutions in the country. Accountability of state and municipal authorities. Increase of public trust in the government. Ethical behavior, high responsibility and integrity of public and government officials. And continuous development of the work of the public bodies under the monitoring and control of the civil society.
ILAR has a team of qualified legal and other experts. The Institute has established partnership relations with European institutions in the implementation of measures for independent monitoring of the work of the public bodies.
ILAR performs a national research “Crisis in the system of contracting, control and implementation of public procurements in Bulgaria” and the first independent civil monitoring on the public bodies’ practices related to public procurements.
ILAR uses efficiently the possibilities of the Access to Public Information Act to obtain information from the public procurement contracting authorities and uses the findings for the initiation of actions in case of alleged wrongdoings and violations.  ILIR experts took part in the drafting of the amendments to the Public Procurement Act in 2014. A considerable part of ILAR recommendations were taken into consideration, as a result of which the transparency in the contracting and implementation of public procurements has increased.

The AdministrTive Court – Burgas is hearing a case against the refusal of the Director of the Health Insurance Fund Regional Office (HIFRO) doctor Tanya Maksheva to provide information about a tender procedure. The complaint was filed by the Institute for Legal Analyses and Research (ILAR) under the Access to Public Information Act (APIA).

Eight days after the initiation of the court proceedings, the ILAR received the requested information. An analysis of the documents by an expert committee at the Institute found 10 violations in the contracting of a small public procurement. The procurement was about an after-sale subscription for a technical support of the computer and office equipment in the regional office in Burgas.

Only four out of ten requested documents were provided. The reference numbers of the documents and the prices offered by the applicants in the tender had been blacked out. No copies to the applicants were presented as most probably they had not been prepared, the experts from the ILAR expressed doubts. Among the ten violations they have found is that the Director of the HIFRO has not issued a decision on the disqualification of an applicant. The latter was eliminated by the evaluation committee which exceeded their powers and abused the functions of the principal contractor in the procedure. Furthermore, by setting unlawful requirements, doctor Maksheva has restricted the applicants to sent their tender offers by post or courier. Four out of five applicants have not received notification about the selection results. Information has been sent only to the winner.

The Director of the HIFRO – Burgas has not presented grounds for the disqualification of an applicant from the tender procedure. The decision of the head of the authority has not been presented to the others against a signature, registered mail or another appropriate manner as required by the Public Procurements Act. These are only part of the found violations.

Doctor Maksheva has presented the complete file of documents related to the completed tender procedure to the Administrative Court – Burgas. She has not granted access to the ILAR though, which requested it under the APIA.

The Chairperson of the ILAR testified before the court:
“They have provided copies and documents which are not authentic. Significant data has been deleted – reference number of an order and other information, which is unacceptable. No doubt, there was no stamp “True to the original” was put on any of the copies.

The court is to deliver its judgment within a month. It is expected that the silent refusal is repealed and the Director of the HIFRO is obligated to issue a decision on the request, as well as to be fined for not issuing such a decision within the legally prescribed period.

May 2011

 

This case is part of the book "Civil Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 stories of NGOs)" published by AIP within the implementation of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information” supported with a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).

The whole responsibility for the content shall be taken by the Access to Information Programme Foundaiton and it cannot be assumed under any circumstances that the document reflects the official stance of the  Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Programme for NGO support in Bulgaria.

 

 

 


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