Public Enterprises

The State-owned enterprises directorate has the following functions:

• Assist the Minister in exercising the rights of the state as a sole owner of the capital, as well as the rights of the state as a partner/shareholder in State – owned enterprises (SOEs) delegated to it by the Council of Ministers, and in taking decisions on matters within its competence, by preparing draft acts by which the Minister pronounces; assist the Minister in exercising the powers delegated to him by law with regard to statutory enterprises established by a special law on the basis of Article 62(3) of the Commercial Act;
• Gives opinions on the annual financial statements of SOEs, both individual and consolidated;
• Gives opinions on the business programs, as well as on the reports on the degree of fulfilment of the indicators set out in them; assess the implementation of approved business programs of SOEs according to a methodology adopted by the Council of Ministers;
• Supports the activity of the Minister in granting permission/approval in his/her capacity as a body exercising the rights of the state in the capital of SOEs on matters within his/her competence: disposal transactions with fixed assets, establishment of real estate rights, rents immovable property, obtains loans, granting loans, provides guarantees (with the exception of guarantees given under the Public Procurement Act), undertakes obligations to guarantee, undertakes obligations as a co-debtor and providing targeted financing, provides collateral to third parties, concludes a court or out-of-court agreement recognizing debts or remitting a debt, establishment a mortgage and pledge of fixed assets of the company, acquires or disposes of shares, etc.;
• Consider proposals for the selection of registered auditor(s) to carry out an independent financial audit of the annual financial statements of SOEs – commercial companies with more than 50 per cent state participation in the capital;
• Prepares the necessary documents in connection with the restructuring procedures (transformations, capital increase/decrease, etc.) of SOEs – commercial companies with more than 50 per cent state participation in the capital and statutory enterprises established by special laws on the basis of Article 62(3) of the Commercial Act;
• Coordinates the provision of the necessary information by SOEs (quarterly and annual financial reports, analyses and activity reports, etc.), including the submission of a report on the implementation of business programs; annual self-assessments of the activity and effectiveness under Article 21(5) of the Public Enterprises Act (PEA) by the management and control bodies, as well as a written report on their work;
• Collects, summarizes, publishes and provides the Public Enterprises and Control Agency (PECA) and the Ministry of Finance with information on the application of the rules on cash concentration;
• Collects, summarizes and provides to the Ministry of Finance information on the expected revenues in the budget from rents, as well as information on the forecast results for SOEs from the general government sector for the respective three-year programming period;
• Gives opinions and makes proposals on voting on issues included in the agenda of the general meetings of SOEs – commercial companies with more than 50 per cent state participation, in which the Minister exercises the rights of the state as a partner/shareholder;
• Prepares and organizes the presentation of the necessary documents in connection with the conduct of the competition procedures for the selection of members of the management and control bodies of SOEs categorized as “large” – requirements for candidates, selection criteria, criteria and methodology for evaluation of candidates, etc.;
• Organizes and participates in competitive procedures for the selection of members of management and control bodies in SOEs, in which the Minister is a body exercising the rights of the state in the capital, under the terms of the PEA and the RIPEA;
• Prepares draft contracts for the assignment of management and supervision with the members of the management and control bodies in SOEs, as well as draft contracts for the assignment of liquidation, and keeps a register of contracts;
• Exercises control over the remunerations of the management and control bodies in SOEs and monitors the funds for wages; prepare periodic analyses of the funds formed for wages by individual SOEs and evaluate criteria, according to which they reached levels of wages;
• Cooperates with the PECA in the development of the Policy for State Participation in State -owned enterprises or its update within its competence, as well as in the preparation of an annual summary analytical report on SOEs;
• Organizes and supports the activity of the Minister regarding liquidation of SOEs and prepares the necessary documents in connection with the liquidation procedure;
• Organizes, in compliance with the requirements of Article 717a(2) of the Commercial Act, the announcements of insolvency practitioners’ announcements on the sale of assets in the bankruptcy estate in the special bulletin of the Ministry, as well as the announcements on the sale of pledged assets in the special bulletin of the Ministry (Article 37(5) of the Special Pledges Act);
• Coordinates the allocation of the funds approved by the state budget for the relevant year for the implementation of the activities under Council of Ministers Decree No 74 of 1998 on the elimination of the consequences of the extraction and processing of uranium raw material, Council of Ministers Decree No 140 of 1992 on the restructuring of ore mining and the gradual closure of inefficient production facilities and Council of Ministers Decree No 195 of 2000 on technical liquidation, conservation and overcoming the harmful consequences of cessation or limitation of production activity in coal mining;
• Organizes and coordinates the activities of the Interdepartmental expert councils and the Advisory Council for acceptance and control over the implementation of assignments, projects and programs for technical liquidation and/or conservation of inefficient sites and production facilities in coal mining, uranium mining and mining, reclamation of the affected lands, monitoring, etc.;
• Participates in the control over the targeted spending of funds from the state budget related to the technical liquidation, recultivation, monitoring and liquidation of the consequences of mining activities of sites and production facilities in coal, uranium and ore mining;
• Organizes and coordinates the activities of the Ministry in the field of government policy for ensuring healthy and safe working conditions;
• Implements the participation of the Ministry in the field of formation and implementation of the state policy on income, employment, education and professional qualification in the real sector in accordance with the policies of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Ministry of Education and Science in the individual fields;
• Organizes and coordinates the activity of the tripartite partnership with the employers’ and trade unions’ organizations;
• Performs the activity of restoration of property rights and compensation of former owners under the procedure of the Law on Compensation of Owners of State-owned Properties and under the procedure of § 18 of the Transitional and Final Provisions of the Privatization and Post-privatization Control Act in conjunction with Article 18 of the repealed Law on Transformation and Privatization of State-owned and Municipal Enterprises;
• Maintains the register referred to in Article 6(9) of the State Property Compensation Act and registers of the files relating to applications for compensation; maintains the data base of the Ministry for the shares/units determined as compensation and transferred; archives administrative files on claims for compensation received; provides information and advice to interested parties on the compensation process; checks and prepares draft documents in connection with the verification of the presence or absence of restitution claims;
• Preserves contracts and documents on privatization transactions for commercial companies in the “Industry and Trade” sector, concluded under the repealed Law on transformation and privatization of state and municipal enterprises with the Minister in his capacity as privatizing authority, and prepares digital copies thereof; provides information and copies of documents in response to requests and alerts from stakeholders;
• Participates in the preparation of draft acts of the Council of Ministers – decisions, orders and decrees related to the functions of the Directorate;
• Organizes and coordinates the activities of the National Economic Council;
• Participates in the activities related to the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in particular when conducting the technical review by the OECD Corporate Governance Committee;
• Participates in the elaboration of the forecasts and the draft budget of the Ministry, as well as in the implementation of the programs from the program budget of the Ministry in view of its functional competence.