While we are arguing about Ukraine, the forestry reform has gone well, announced MP from „We continue the change“ political party Alexander Dunchev on Facebook. In a publication, he noted that after the dismissal of the Deputy Minister of „behind the scenes“, the second great success was the rescue of BGN 500,000 for 2022 or a total of BGN 3 million in 6 years, „which would sink into the coffers of a large company and the parties related to it, if its 6-year long-term contract for extraction of 30,000 m3 of wood per root in the State Forestry in Belovo and State Forestry-Ihtiman was not terminated”.
The contract was terminated by the Southwestern State Enterprise days after its conclusion on March 18, after MPs Alexander Dunchev, Dimitar Nedyalkov, Marin Shishev, Rosen Kosturkov and Bogomil Petkov asked the Minister of Agriculture why in the tender for 6-year yield. 30,000 m3 conditions are set for participants to have „2 specialized tractors, 2 bulldozers!, 3 harvesters !!, 8 tractors / trucks for transporting timber, 8 horses, 10 saws and 33 workers“ – conditions that only the winning company meets without competition. While in similar tenders for the same volumes and terrain conditions in neighboring farms were required 1-2 tractors, 2-3 horses and 2-3 trucks“, said the MP. He added:
However, on April 27, 2022, the State Forestry in Belovo launched regular electronic auctions without restrictions / praise to the Minister of Agriculture for issuing an order for mandatory implementation of electronic auctions from March 1, 2022 by virtue of the coalition agreement / the same high-quality coniferous wood from the suspended long-term site / departments 150, 155, 185, 196 /. 12 companies are participating in the auctions, which in real competition and bidding achieve prices from 140 to 180 BGN / m3, or 90-110 BGN / m3 more than the initial prices at which the same wood was sold at the auction held on 18.03. 2022. Similar to regular electronic auctions in State Forestry-Ihtiman on April 20, 2022, in competition between 2-3 companies, prices of BGN 90-150 / m3 were achieved, or BGN 50 to 70 / m3 above the initial prices for deciduous and coniferous wood, such as those included in the terminated long-term site.“
And so the wood initially sold without bidding through the terminated long-term contract on 18.03.2022 / for a price of BGN 300,000 for 5600 m3 for 2022 or a total of BGN 1.8 million / m3 for the 6 years /, suddenly with real competition, real bidding and without restrictive conditions, it reaches a selling price of BGN 800,000 for 2022 or BGN 5 million for 6 years, Dunchev reported.
„The difference is millions of levs, which instead of being drained, now remain in the forestry for salaries, additional material incentives, new forest roads and tourist infrastructure (and there they will drain them, of course) and I hope modern technology,“ he wrote.
According to Dunchev, this is just the beginning. He added that a draft resolution was submitted to the National Assembly today with the full report and the following 8 measures (policies under the coalition agreement, not requiring legal changes) to protect competition and state forests from the timber mafia.
- Full transparency and computerisation of the logging lease;
- Publicity and revision of the rules for setting initial selling prices, including updating logging prices;
- Revision / removal of all bureaucratic restrictions such as „local traders“, „requests“, „capacities“, „certificates“, etc.;
- Separation of yields from the sale of timber (ie traders to come out of the forest);
- Limiting long-term contracts for technological wood for large processors to 3 years and up to 20% of the quantities processed by them;
- Application of the maximum legal amount of guarantees of 5%, and a separate deposit of 10% for the sale of timber;
- Public electronic register of the activities and contracts of all logging companies and traders;
- Termination of all contracts that do not meet the new conditions, including reduction of new long-term contracts up to 2 years.
