Following a written procedure in the period 15-29 June 2021, the Monitoring Committee (MC) of the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" 2014-2020 "(OPIC) and Operational Program" Initiative for Small and Medium Enterprises "2014-2020 ( OPIMSP) approved proposals from the Managing Authority (MA) of OPIC for changes in the operational program.
Despite the categorical disagreement expressed by BIA, BGN 100 million, which were to be used free of charge by the working capital business at the initiative of the European Commission REACT-EU, were transferred to the Fund of Funds (FMFIB) under the financial instrument "Portfolio Guarantees" guaranteeing loans that commercial banks will provide to Bulgarian companies against interest.
The transfer of grants for business (grants) to a loan guarantee program (financial instrument) is contrary to the objectives of REACT-EU - the desire to quickly respond to the need for liquidity in the affected companies and delay overcoming the adverse effects of the crisis. From the "Preliminary assessment for effective implementation of financial instruments" presented within the procedure, we cannot assume that their use will help Bulgarian companies to recover faster and efficiently. From the data indicated in the document for the leading financial instruments, it is clear that out of a total of BGN 657.9 million, provided a resource for portfolio guarantees, including BGN 157.9 million through FMFIB and BGN 500 million through BDB, the amount of the confirmed guarantees loans at the end of April 2021 - more than a year after the start of the pandemic, amounted to only BGN 190 million in total through the two institutions (BGN 7 million from FMFIB and BGN 183 million from BDB), or less than 29% of the planned resource. Therefore, adding a budget of BGN 100 million to the operation will not lead to more efficient use of the help. The arguments presented in support of the decision proposed by the MA are, in fact, counter-arguments for taking such a decision.
In addition, given the new budget for portfolio guarantees in BDB and FMFIB, and the program "Recovery" announced by the Minister of Economy - to provide assurances to commercial banks for unsecured loans to businesses in the amount of BGN 2.5 billion, the allocation of additional resource in OPIC for guaranteeing loans is economically unjustified. (See Results of a BIA survey on the topic)
Unfortunately, we should note that the arguments of the business were not taken into consideration, and the majority of the MC members tacitly supported the proposals of the Ministry of Economics, which decided not to reach BGN 100 million in business in business the form of grants.
Also worrying is the reluctance of the OPIC MA to organize a face-to-face or remote (online) meeting of the Monitoring Committee, which would allow for an in-depth discussion and exchange of views between stakeholders. Instead, the MA conducted a written procedure - an approach that formalizes the decision-making process did not allow a constructive and reasoned debate on crucial business changes and contradicted established European partnership practices.
