Forest enterprises increased their revenues by almost BGN 35 million through the electronic sale of timber

State forestry enterprises have increased their revenues by almost BGN 35 million due to the e-auctions timber sale platform built by Information Services. The additional income came from the increase in the initially announced price of the timber that was offered at auction. The platform is used by three of the six state forest enterprises which sell timber cut on the state forest plots. They are the Southwest Forestry State Enterprise (SFSE), the Northwest Forestry State Enterprise (NFSE) and the Northeast Forestry State Enterprise (NFSE).

The total amount of revenues received from electronic timber auctions exceeded BGN 146 million, and only for the last year they were over BGN 60 million. Since the launch of the platform in 2016, some 2,500 electronic auctions have been held so far. The average number of bidding steps per auction was 28, and the most contested auction had 503 bidding steps.

“The platform for electronic sale of timber eliminates the possibility of preliminary agreements between the participants in the auctions, which significantly increased the revenues of the state forest enterprises," said the executive director of Information Services Ivaylo Filipov. According to him, full transparency of the process and a significant increase in competition have been achieved, as the online-based system allows all registered timber processing companies in the country to participate in bidding.

The electronic platform significantly eases the process of registration of the participants in the auctions, as well as the work of the commissions on the auction procedures. To access the platform and participate in the bidding are required only initial registration and a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES). The e-auctions on the platform are with open bidding and are conducted in real time via a web browser. Buyers can bid in the e-auction from anywhere and anytime, which saves time and money. All documentation is entirely in electronic format, and the system provides a high level of protection against replacement and/or loss of offers and documents.

Thanks to integrated time and content authentication service Time Stamp, the authenticity of the documents and bids submitted by the participants of the platform is guaranteed. It protects both the auction commissions and the persons who decided to participate in the bidding.

The system automatically ranks based of the highest offered price, which significantly reduces the appeals of the procedures and guarantees the fairness of the auction.