BCC supports the use of international standard contracts

Representatives of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber (BCC), headed by the Chairman of the Board of the organization Eng. Svetoslav Glosov, participated in the autumn meeting of the General Assembly of the Federation of European International Contractors (EIC). The delegation included also Deputy Chairman of BCC Eng. Nikolay Stankov, Executive Director Eng. Ivan Boykov, Chairman of Regional Office Burgas Eng. Nikolay Nikolov and Eng. Gianni Antova, head of “International Activity and Management of Projects” Department. The meeting was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, recently announced by the London Academy of Urbanism European city in 2015. Host was the Netherlands association of international contractors NABU, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. The meeting started with an introduction speech by the President of EIC Philippe Dessoy, who welcomed the delegates from the building federations of Europe. In the main part of the forum were presented the reports of the working groups of EIC. Particular attention was paid to the report of the team working on “Contractual conditions” and specifically the new standards of FIDIC for tunnel operations, and policies of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), more popular as the World Bank, in terms of the unusually low price tenders. The management of EIC informed about the discussions held with FIDIC, on the topic of tunnel operations and in particular of the peculiarities that arise when contractual conditions and payments and real ones mismatch. At the meeting of EIC were commented the consultations with the World Bank and in particular the request for a commitment by the financial institution international competitive bidding (ICB) to remain compulsory form for investments with high value and with proper banking supervision. For large and complex infrastructure projects EIC advocates the maintenance of "gold standard of the Bank" for documents and practices for the award. As regards the use of the so-called alternative procurement arrangements, EIC is concerned that the proposed new policy does not call for equivalence and the required standard waters down to “acceptable” practices for the award. It insists on the mandatory use of fair and balanced international standard contracts, to provide the necessary tranquility for participants in the tenders. The organization emphasizes the need to integrate sustainable criteria in public procurement, financed by the World Bank. The final version of the new framework for policy in tenders of the World Bank was voted by the board of directors of the institution on 21 July this year, as the application of the new rules and regulations will start from the beginning of next year.