The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has revoked as an illegal the extreme increase in fees for appeals to public procurements. By decision of SAC a series of violations of the PPA in the new tariff have been established – not only in the procedure of its adoption, but also in the large size of the fees.
The price for appeal of tenders before July 1, 2014 has been solid. If the contract is below the line above which the notice shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the appeal to the CPC shall be 850 leva, if it exceeds – 1700 leva. The new tariff from July 1, 2014 has became a proportional fee – 2% of the estimated contract value, but not less than 850 leva and not more than 15 000 leva.
In its decision SAC announced that the adoption of the tariff violated the requirement of the Law for the regulations, the deadline for comments and suggestions on the project is at least 14 days. In issuing the regulation are admitted contradictions with the substantive provisions. The one is in determining the basis for calculating fees – the estimated value of the contract. The new tariff is contrary to Art. 60 para. 1 and Art. 120, para. 2 of the Constitution, as in the determination of fees approved it violated the principle of compliance of those fees with the costs incurred for carrying out the activity for which they are collected.
It criticized the fact that the new higher rate is a retrospective, because it does not meet the hypothesis in which Act regulations exceptionally allowed retroactivity of the law.
The decision is not final and can be appealed before a five-member panel of SAC.
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By decision of the end of February 2016 a five-member panel of the SBC confirmed the decision from last summer at first instance and finally cancelled the drastic jump in fees for the appealing of public procurements.
