A shelter for the party faithful and a priceless ally in times of election. That can be the definition of Information Services, the state-owned company controlled by the finance ministry. Now Information Services is braced to lose its main income source: the outsourcing of IT services from the finance ministry. That will deprive the company of its monopoly on the ministry's IT system, which it has had since 1998. The question is what will happen with Information Services after the final results of a BGN 28.1 million public tender are announced. It is the high prices offered by Information Services for the four lots of the contract that may cost it its head and deprive it of what it has had by right so far. According to the Public Procurement Act, the only obstacle to breaking the monopoly over the ministry's IT services may be the rationale required from the other candidates to explain the big difference in their bids. If Information Services fails to win the contract, it will lose more than 50% of its income. According to the company's report, its sales in 2007 and 2008 totalled BGN 61.4 million. The results for 2009 have not been yet announced. In 2007 the company had a BGN 53 million contract for IT services, the finance ministry told the Pari daily. However, the ministry declined to comment on its plans for Information Services if the company loses the public contract. Information Services has been undergoing restructuring since last year. We have laid off about 15% of the staff (120 employees), cut all unnecessary costs and even halted our investment programme, executive director Chavdar Todorov told the Pari daily. The company has focused on current contracts and has managed to complete a delayed project, thus unblocking European funding. It is now working on a tax and fee system for municipalities. Some 5% of its income comes from renting some of its buildings countrywide. The debates about the company were revived after the parliamentary election last year. Prior to that Information Services had always been connected with the ruling majority, which had tried to lay its hands on its notorious database. During Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's administration the company was headed by cronies of the prime minister; they were then replaced by cronies of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's successor, Sergey Stanishev. In late September, the management board was again refreshed to include Biser Boev (one of the authors of ruling party GERB's election programme), Democrats for Strong Bulgaria's Atanas Atanasov, Petko Sotirov and Dobrin Pindzhurov. Late last year the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT) called for dissolving of the company. Information Services has always been a pain in the neck for BAIT. The association has often accused it of corruption practices and the state - of staging public tenders so as to be won by Information Services. Finance minister Simeon Dyankov said he planned to sell the company but no steps have been taken in that direction yet. The commission in charge of the public tender is expected to come up with a decision today. That will determine the fate of Information Services.
Source: Pari (18.03.2010)

Information Services JSC - Sofia has appointed Extraordinary Meeting on 21.09.2010. Meeting agenda includes: changes within the management bodies.
Source: Registry Agency (12.08.2010)

General Atanas Atanassov: Biser Boev intended to sell properties of Information Services Plc Biser Boev, former head of Economedia and member of the Board of Directors of Information Services Plc, insisted on the sale of assets of the state – owned company. The company owns attractive buildings in all major Bulgarian cities, which should have been bought at lower prices by close acquaintances of Boev so that they could profit from the collapse in property prices during the crisis. This was announced by general Atanas Atanassov, a colleague of Boev in the Board of Directors of Information Services and former member of DSB (Democrats for Strong Bulgaria), before Klassa. According to general Atanassov, the reason for his dismissal from the management board of the company is that Boev did not want opposition to the sales. At the end of last week Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov ordered the dismissal of three members from the Board of Directors of the state-owned Information Services company. The decision will be made at a meeting scheduled for September 21. Official reason for the order, signed by the Deputy Prime Minister, is his desire to reduce expenditures. Besides Atanassov, Dobrin Pindjurov and Petko Sotirov are expected to be dismissed from the Management Board. Biser Boev, current Executive Director of Information Services, Chavdar Atanassov and a new member, who will be nominated by the Ministry of Finance, will remain on their positions. Atanassov explicitly stated before Klassa that his removal was not a political one and should not be interpreted as a signal for more serious misunderstandings between the DSB and GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) and an attempt for removing DSB members from power.
Source: Class (17.08.2010)

Bulgaria’s state-run IT company Information Services PLC posted a 45% lower after-tax profit for the first half of the year compared with a year earlier. Between January and June, the firm netted BGN 1.268 million in comparison to BGN 2.299 million for the corresponding period of 2009. Sales slumped by 11%, or by BGN 1.8 million as financial expenses soared by 792%, or BGN 475,000, mostly on the back of a BGN 8.1 million contract for the sale of a receivable with the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB). Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has granted the right to sign IT services contracts with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), rejecting an appeal by Information Services, which was seeking suspension of awarding the public procurement. The court ruling was made at the end of June and cannot be appealed.
Source: Dnevnik (18.08.2010)

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) is seeking removing state-run IT company Information Services PLC from the list of companies that cannot be privatised but still it does not plan to shed its 99.49% stake yet. The announcement was made by the MoF yesterday after the Ministry of Economy had said that the company will be put up for sale once it has been removed from the list. According to the energy ministry, Information Services would be privatised either through the State Consolidation Company, an entity formed to prevent privatisation proceeds from pouring into the Silver Fund, or through the Privatisation Agency. At the end of the day the economy ministry admitted they had made a mistake and confirmed that no sell-off plans are on the drawing board for Information Services. Company sources told Dnevnik that Information Services has real estate of a combined 90,000 square metres but still it generates just 4% of its revenue from leases. Information Services takes care of the information systems of the National Revenue Agency and the Customs Agency as well as calculation of election results and maintenance of the ESGRAON personal data system and a string of other systems. Information Services was embroiled in a major scandal last year when it was revealed after the general elections that company executives have splashed out enormous amounts of money for representation expenses and its supervisory board members have pocketed astounding sums for just a couple of session per year.
Source: Dnevnik (26.08.2010)

During its regular sitting yesterday, Bulgaria's government decided to announce a public tender for the privatization of two of the most profitable state-run companies - Information Service JSC and Technoexportstroy Ltd. The question about the possible privatization of Information Service JSC was first raised a month ago. Then, General Atanas Atanassov, former director of the Counterintelligence Service, accused Deputy PM and finance minister Simeon Djankov of planning to sell off the company's real properties. Bulgaria's Information Service Company is the chief vote-counter in the country and its name appears in the media whenever elections are knocking at the door. However, the company also maintains and administers the information and communication systems and databases of all state institutions in Bulgaria. Technoexportstroy was one of the Bulgarian participants in the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project and used to hold Bulgaria's oil and gas concessions abroad.
Source: Standart (15.09.2010)

Energy sector still most profitable in Bulgaria Bulgaria's energy industry remains the country's most profitable sector, while segments strongly backed by the government such as transport continue to witness obstacles, according to the earnings reports of state-run companies as at end-June, published on the Ministry of Finance's website. Hospitals reported contradictory figures in the period, while entities under the wing of the Finance and Defence Ministries registered weakened results. State-run power utility NEK booked the highest profit of slightly over BGN 130 million against a loss of BGN 17 million a year earlier. Among the best performers was also Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which saw its profit surge 76% to BGN 42.6 million. The growth was attributed, however, to the deferred costs for spent nuclear fuel disposal, which saved the company BGN 42.6 million. Electricity System Operator (ESO), a subsidiary of NEK, and Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) also reported positive results of BGN 52 million and BGN 104.3 million, respectively. Meanwhile, coal-fired power plant Maritsa East 2 registered a loss of BGN 28.3 million, down 67% on the year, due to lower proceeds from electricity sales. National railway carrier BDZ, the weak spot of the country's transport industry, widened its loss on a consolidated basis by 40% to BGN 62 million. Although its cargo transportation started to increase, underpinned by the recovery in economic activity, it was still below the September 2009 levels. Postal services operator Bulgarian Posts also suffered a BGN 822,000 loss against a positive result of BGN 2.8 million a year earlier, due to a drop in revenue from postal services. Among the Transport Ministry's major entities, Sofia Airport was the only company to preserve last year's profit of BGN 11 million despite the 7% decrease in revenue. Military vehicle repairer Terem-Khan Krum, controlled by the Defence Ministry, broadened its loss for January to September to BGN 3.115 million against BGN 2.38 milion in the same period of 2009. The performance of local state-run hospitals proved to be the most inconsistent, with the hospitals in Ruse, Varna and Sofia's St. Anna reporting negative results.
Source: Dnevnik (02.11.2010)