The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has started the preparation of the program for renovation of public buildings

The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has started work on preparing the criteria for financing energy efficiency measures with funds from the National Plan for Reconstruction and Sustainability for public, cultural, sports, commercial or industrial buildings. It is envisaged that all municipalities in the country will have access to the resource from the plan, but first they must make an "inventory" of the public building stock, which is located on their territory. The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works is about to develop application guidelines and criteria for prioritizing the sites. Government agencies will also be able to receive funding for administrative buildings located outside the capital.

This became clear at a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Grozdan Karadjov and his team with representatives of the National Association of Municipalities and local authorities in the country.

The Plan envisages BGN 370 million without VAT to be the funds for renovation of public buildings. With its funding, the program for energy efficiency of residential buildings will continue to be implemented. The funds set aside for this purpose are nearly BGN 1.2 billion without VAT. It will also be possible to implement energy saving systems.

During the meeting, the rules under which municipal public works projects will be financed with funds from the budget of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works were discussed. After its restructuring, BGN 500 million will be directed to the repair of fourth-class roads and water supply and sewerage projects in municipalities with a population of between 2,000 and 10,000 people. A condition for financing will be the availability of a construction permit and completed procedures under the Public Procurement Act for selection of contractors.

The main goal of investments with this resource is the convergence of the regions, as the focus will be on small municipalities, given that large ones have more sources of funding, said Minister Karadjov.

Proposals for repair of municipal roads currently exceed BGN 1 billion. Those that we believe could be funded are divided into 5 main groups, said Deputy Minister Yavor Penchev and presented the categorization that the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has made on the received projects.

The first group includes 21 sites with ready projects, a building permit issued and a contractor selected after a procedure under the Public Procurement Act. For some of them there are also current quantity and value accounts, amounting to a total of about BGN 20 million. The estimated value of the others is a total of BGN 50 million.

88 sites are divided into the second group. Project readiness and construction permit are available for them, but no contractors have been selected. They are again divided into two subgroups. BGN 150 million without VAT is the value of those with accurate quantity and value accounts, and the rest amount to about BGN 70 million without VAT.

The third group includes sites that require revalidation of expired building permits. BGN 107 million is the value of the projects for which the quantity and value accounts are current, and the rest is about BGN 75 million.

For 129 sites included in the fourth group, there is a project readiness, but for them the necessary building permits have not been issued yet. For other 31 sites there is no project readiness or the route is not part of the approved list of municipal roads.

The information about these projects was provided to us by the National Association of Municipalities. The ministry continues to receive information directly from municipalities, explained Deputy Minister Penchev. We plan to use an existing methodology for their evaluation, which will be adjusted so that it is more accurate, he added.

Each week, experts will review the documents received by the ministry. We will finance sites with a wider scope, such as streets and squares, for example, until the resource is exhausted, informed Minister Karadjov.

Deputy Minister Delyana Ivanova announced that the same approach will be applied to the financing of water supply and sewerage infrastructure. Project readiness, a building permit and a selected contractor who has confirmed his commitment will be required. Projects that are planned to be implemented in separate stages will also be supported. However, a condition for the granting of the subsidy will be to work simultaneously on the water supply and sewerage facilities in the specific territory.

It is envisaged that the projects will be co-financed by the municipalities. The size of their share is yet to be specified.

The mayors congratulated the team of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works for the dialogue with them, for the active work and for the initiative.

According to the mayor of Montana Zlatko Zhivkov, it is clear that it will not be possible to finance everything that is needed, but it must start somewhere. The mayor of Dimitrovgrad Ivo Dimov raised the issue of the increased prices of construction materials, due to which the values of most of the projects are no longer relevant.

We expect to move to complex projects with a wider range of activities, said Donka Mihailova - Mayor of Troyan.

It is very important to first solve the problem with the underground infrastructure, so that we can then focus on transport, said the mayor of Elin Pelin Ivaylo Simeonov.

The Management Board of the National Association of Municipalities will summarize the proposals and opinions of local authorities, and then present them to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works.