26.02.2014

The projects submitted by municipalities under the Growth and Sustainable Development of the Regions Public Investment Programme which did not receive financing were not discarded by the Inter-institutional Council but remain currently unfunded. This is what Minister of Finance Petar Chobanov said after the meeting held at the Ministry of Finance with the members of the Inter-institutional Council and the Managing Board of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria.

There will be a possibility to finance these projects after June 10, 2014 when the Inter-institutional Council will process the information about the PPL procedures concerning the approved municipal projects. The projects for which there are no PPL procedures and no contracting will be terminated and the resources will be transferred to projects ready for implementation. Minister Chobanov also announced that an agreement was reached to refine the Public Investment Programme as, according to the general view, this was a better approach than the one applied thus far. "We have project assessment criteria and a clarity about the municipalities' need for public resources", Minister Chobanov said. There are two criteria for projects to be removed from the Programme, i.e. if no PPL procedure is held until June 10 and if no contract is signed under the project until the beginning of September.

The Finance Minister highlighted that there would be a Public Investment Programme in the coming years as well. The new proposals of the municipalities will be gathered in spring and by the end of 2014 some clarity is expected as to which projects would be financed by the 2015 budget. The Ministry of Finance will provide the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria with the full list of the projects sent by the regional governors to the Inter-institutional Council. Some issues were also raised at the meeting by the mayors concerning the coordination with the Inter-institutional Council with a view to the faster fund absorption and the provision of timely and correct information from municipalities concerning project implementation. The National Association also proposed an expansion of the composition of the Inter-institutional Council so as to include more members from the quota of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria.

"The Programme is an appropriate model for implementation of the EU principle of reviewing public expenditure", added Minister Chobanov. According to the Chair of the Managing Board of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Todor Popov, "PIP is a step in the right direction, Programme resources are considerable and the municipalities have clearly stated there need for BGN 2 billion of public investment".