The public procurement was announced with the aim of providing airfare for business trips for employees and foreign guests of the theater. This includes participation in international festivals, cultural exchange programs and other events related to the theater's activities.
We emphasize that the requirement to provide price offers for 237 destinations does not mean that the contracting authority plans trips to all of them. This list serves as a basis for evaluating the participants' price offers. This list is a continuation of the list of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for countries where missions of the Republic of Bulgaria operate.
The indication of multiple destinations in the technical specification and the annexes to the price proposal is only indicative and serves the needs of evaluating and comparing the offers. This in no way obliges the contracting authority to subsequently purchase tickets to each of the listed destinations and to make actual trips to them.
Even in the presence of a contract with a contractor for the order, each individual trip will be made only in case of real necessity, in accordance with the financial capabilities and specific goals of the theater. This ensures that public funds are spent only when justified and necessary. The public procurement announced in this way with a wide range of destinations provides pre-agreed conditions and prices, which guarantees economic efficiency, transparency and avoidance of unreasonable costs that would arise in urgent individual negotiations for destinations not included in the public procurement.
The requirement for participants to provide up to four different price options for each destination aims to ensure flexibility and competitive prices for future trips. The inclusion of more destinations ensures that no matter where in the world an event takes place, the theatre will be ready to organize a trip in a legal and transparent manner. The coverage of a large number of destinations allows for the collection of different offers from potential participants, which encourages competition between them and helps to achieve better conditions and prices for the public resource.
A complete list of destinations allows for an objective and comparable evaluation of the offers, which is key to selecting the best offer within the framework of the public procurement. This is standard practice in public procurement of this nature and does not aim to limit competition. The contract is awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous offer, determined on the basis of the criterion “lowest price“ under Art. 70, para. 2, p. 1 of the Public Procurement Act.
The conditions announced in this way prevent the risk of starting a new procedure for each occurrence of an urgent or specific trip. In the absence of an offered destination in a valid contract for providing airline tickets, any need to travel to a new destination that is not included in the contractor's price offer would require starting a new procedure, which, within the meaning of the Public Procurement Act, is associated with an administrative burden, formal deadlines and the risk of delay, which may make participation in the event impossible or ineffective.
By including as many destinations as possible, there is an opportunity to react to a canceled or delayed flight, missed connection, carrier strikes or other logistical difficulties, and an alternative route or airport can be used. The greater choice of flight combinations is especially important when participating in international events, where the timetable is strict and a change of route may be decisive. The public procurement procedure has been announced in full compliance with the current rules of the Public Procurement Act and its implementing regulations, with all interested parties having the opportunity to participate on equal terms.
There is nothing strange in a Bulgarian cultural institution, especially when it comes to a representative one such as the National Theatre, thinking about the way in which it connects Bulgarian culture with the wider world globally, not excluding opportunities for partnerships or exchanges with any representative point on the world map. For example, since 1993, one of the most representative international festivals for the performing arts on the African continent has been held in Abidjan, namely the MASA Festival for Performing Arts.
The main goal of the theater is to preserve and spread the Bulgarian cultural spirit in the country and abroad, where there is a Bulgarian community or a new audience that we can introduce to Bulgarian art. We are particularly active in this direction and the expansion of destinations shows exactly this. A simple calculation will also show that with the current requirements we will achieve the optimal price for organizing every possible and impossible trip.
We are outraged by the fact that a public procurement, which has been launched for years, is currently being used to provoke non-existent scandals because of the theater's attempt to maintain the lowest ticket price.
We believe that no business interest is above the audience, which is most important to us.
National Theater "Ivan Vazov"