All disputes related to public procurement and garbage collection contracts in Sofia are currently being considered by the Supreme Administrative Court. This was stated by the Deputy Mayor for Ecology of the Sofia Municipality Nadezhda Bobcheva on the air of “Offensive“ on NOVA NEWS.
According to her, the annexes for a 19% price increase in zone 1 and zone 2 were concluded to existing contracts from 2020 and are in accordance with the interpretation of the Public Procurement Agency, to which the municipality has sent an official inquiry. “We complied with the given interpretation“, emphasized Bobcheva.
She described the entire procedure for awarding the service as extremely problematic. “This order went to hell – everything was appealed and currently everything is in court“, said the deputy mayor and added that all positions related to the garbage crisis in the capital are subject to litigation.
Bobcheva assured that despite this, the Sofia Municipality is doing everything possible to provide quality service to citizens. She specified that the contract with “Sofekostroy“ was signed on December 23, 2020, which is a traditional date – and the previous contract for the cleaning of the “Krasna Polyana“ area was concluded on the same date. The new contract was signed immediately after the old one expired and zone 6, including the districts of “Lyulin“, “Krasna Polyana“ and “Krasno Selo“, was merged with it.
Regarding the prices, Bobcheva explained that estimated values were set, since the services vary in different districts. As an example, she cited the more frequent collection of bulky waste in the districts of “Kremikovtsi“ and “Novi Iskar“.
Regarding zone 3 - the districts of “Izgrev“, “Poduyane“ and “Slatina“ - the deputy mayor indicated that the procedure ended without a selected contractor, which led to a legal dispute. The suspended company has appealed the decision and the case is already in the Supreme Administrative Court. For the “Izgrev“ district, waste removal is temporarily carried out by the district administration, with the service being financed by the Sofia Municipality.
Bobcheva emphasized that in most of the areas, waste collection and removal services have not been interrupted. She reported 2025 as a record year in terms of production and export of alternative fuel, as well as in revenues from the sale of separately collected recyclable materials.
Regarding the BSP's proposal to exempt the affected districts from the garbage fee, Nadezhda Bobcheva said that in her opinion this is “rather a populist decision“.
The deputy mayor also commented on the meteorological situation. Due to the expected rain and snow at night, 160 snow removal machines are on standby.