Twinning Bulgaria. Public Contracts for Implementing the 2007-2013 EU Structural Fund Communication Plan

On 22nd and 23rd January in Sofia under the Twinning project Italy-Bulgaria “Improvement of the Coordination, Management and Implementation Mechanisms of EU Structural Instruments”, Formez was invited to intervene on the subject of Public Procurement and EU Structural Funds Communication Services. The wide-ranging seminar on Public Procurement involved the functionaries from the Managing Authority of the 2007–2013 Bulgarian Operational Programmes (OP), experts from the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), the leading structure of the Twinning project in the persons of Ms Angela D’Alonzo, Ms Monica Lai and Mr Pietro Condorelli, a Spanish expert from the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, Mr Vincente Rodrigues Saez, and two Formez experts on communication issues, Ms Claudia Salvi and Ms Anna Abis.
Mr Saez outlined in details the aspects related to the elaboration of tenders and the relations between Public Administration and Communication Agencies. From the recent experiences gained under the EuroPA project promoted by the Department for Public Administration (DFP) in support of the Managing Authorities of Italian central and regional administrations in the implementation of the 2000-2006 Communication Plans, the remark focussed not only on the content of a tender but also on the organizational implications related to planning, realization and management of a tender for communication services.
Particular emphasis was given to the need to embark on a call for tender only after carefully evaluating what activities of the Communication Plan should be directly managed by the administration in as much as they are  strategic for the success of the plan, as well as what activities are to be assigned to an external body, thus including the methods for in itinere control of the activities assigned under the tender. 
The formal aspects about the elaboration of the deed of assignment and in particular, the definition of the object of the contract, the identification of the criteria of selection, the assignment of the offers and the composition of the workgroup for drawing up the tender, were analysed.
Finally, another address regarded the relations between public administrations and the communication agencies by outlining on one hand, the difficulties of the administration to obtain customized solutions which take into account the “specificities” of public communication and the institutional publicity on Structural Funds, and from the other, the difficulties of the agencies which often provide tenders whose content and criteria of assignment are ambiguous and scarcely detailed.