Content of the offer

Updated last 26.03.2021

General information

It is important to note that the Public Procurement Act (PPA) governs several types of procedures, which the contracting authorities may apply when assigning the Public procurement. In some procedures the submission of offers is preceded by pre-selection of the candidates, who have submitted application for participation.

The most common procedure in Bulgaria is the open procedure, where all interested parties submit their offers along with information regarding their personal status and the conformity with the specified selection criteria.

Another widely used procedure, suitable for SME concerns procurement for construction, amounting to BGN 50 thousand up to BGN 270 thousand and services [1] and deliveries amounting to BGN 30 thousand up to BGN 70 thousand, assigned by “Collecting Offers through calls or invitaions to certain persons“ [2].

What should I include in my offer?

The offer must contain:

• Technical proposal;
• Price Offer of the participant (art. 101, para. 3 of the PPA) [3].

The contents of the technical and price proposal are detailed in art. 39 of the Implementing Rules for the Public Procurement Act (IRPPA). The technical proposal of the offer should contain a proposal for the performance of the procurement, in conformity with the technical specifications and the requirements of the contracting authority and declarations regarding observation of the obligations, related to taxes and social security contributions, environmental protection, employment protection and labour conditions when preparing the offer.

The technical proposal must be also accompanied by a power of attorney, when the offer is submitted by a person, who is not a participant’s official legal representative. The technical proposal also includes samples, models and other documents/photos/appendices, which have been requested by the contracting authority. The price proposal contains participant’s proposal [4] regarding the acquisition cost and respective proposals by other indicators with financial details.

Key specificities

Key specificities, which you should keep in mind, include:

The templates of the required documents and guidelines for their preparation are attached by the contracting authority to the documentation of the procurement (art. 31, para. 1 of the PPA);

Participants indicate in the offer the subcontractors, if any, and their share in the procurement. In this case participants must provide evidence of the obligations, undertaken by the subcontractors (art. 66, para. 1 of the PPA);

When the offer is to be accompanied by information regarding the personal condition and participant’s conformity with the selection criteria (e.g., in case of an open procedure and public competition), this information is provided through an European Single Procurement Document (ESPD). More information regarding ESPD and how to complete and use it, is available here.

Participants must strictly adhere to the conditions, specified by the contracting authority in their offers (art. 101, para. 5 of the PPA).

All documents, related to the participation in the procedure, are prepared in Bulgarian language. If the procurement is implemented outside of Bulgaria, the contracting authority may permit that the application for participation and the offer are submitted in the official language of the respective country where the implementation shall take place (art. 101, para. 6 of the PPA).

Until the expiration of the period for submission of applications for participation or offers each and every candidate or participant may amend, supplement or withdraw the application/offer (art. 101, para. 7 of the PPA).

Each and every participant in the procedure for the assignment of the public procurement is entitled to one single offer (art. 101, para. 8 of the PPA). A person, member of a combination or who has given his consent to be the subcontractor to another participant, cannot submit an individual offer (art. 101, para. 9 of the PPA). If the order is divided into lots, participants can submit offers for one, multiple or all of the lots, but they cannot submit more than one offer for a single lot (see art. 101, para. 13 of the PPA).

Participants can specify in their offers information, which they consider to be confidential due to the presence of trade secret. If the participants have referred to confidentiality, the respective information may not be disclosed by the contracting authority. Participants cannot refer to confidentiality with regard to the part of their offers, that are subject to evaluation (e.g., if the award criteria is “the lowest price“, the proposed prices in the offers cannot be confidential) (art. 102 of the PPA).

If the subject matter of the public procurement makes it necessary that it is implemented in stages, the offer specifies the specific stages and period for performance of each stage (art. 39, para. 4 IRPPA).

For more information
	More information on the legislation and methodology in the public procurement area can be found on the website of the: Public Procurement Agency.

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[1] With the exception of the social and other specific services, listed in Appendix 2 to art. 11, para. 3 of the PPA.

[2] For more detailed information about the procedure, please see Chapter twenty-six of the PPA.

[3] The participant is an economic subject, who has submitted an offer or conceptual design or has been invited to take part in negotiations.

[4] Legal representative is for example the general manager of a limited liability company. A power of attorney will be necessary, if, for example, a lawyer of the company submits the offer.