DZZD in Bulgarian Public Procurement: 2026 Guide

A Bulgarian civil partnership (DZZD) can combine the licences, experience, staff, and financial capacity of several businesses for one public contract. It is a useful procurement vehicle, but it is not a legal person and it does not erase the identity of its members. The tender must therefore make the group, each member's role, and every relied-on resource fit together from submission through performance.

This guide provides general information as at 1 August 2026. It is not legal, tax, accounting, procurement, or tender-specific advice. The contract notice, procurement documents, clarifications, and current law must be checked for every procedure.

DZZD Procurement at a Glance

A Group May Bid Without Becoming a Company

Article 10 of the current official Public Procurement Act (PPA) allows Bulgarian and foreign individuals, legal persons, and their groups to participate. The authority cannot reject a bidder merely because its status or legal form differs from a domestic company where its members may lawfully perform the contract.

This reflects Article 19 of Directive 2014/24/EU: a temporary association cannot be forced into a particular legal form in order to submit a tender. The authority may require the successful group to create a legal person only where that is necessary for satisfactory performance. Under the Bulgarian Act, the requirement must be stated and justified in the opening decision. It is an exception, not a standard incorporation condition.

A DZZD remains a contractual association even after BULSTAT registration. Its members should first settle the general formation, ownership, decision-making, and tax structure described in our DZZD formation guide. A procurement agreement then needs additional tender-specific clauses.

Draft the Consortium Agreement for This Tender

Do not recycle a two-page generic DZZD agreement. The procurement documents may require a lead member, an authorised representative, solidary liability, and specific information about the activities allocated to each participant. The current PPA implementing regulation protects groups from unjustified or disproportionate special conditions, but it also permits the authority to seek the group instrument and these operational details.

The agreement should identify the procedure and commit every member for the full bid and performance period. It should address at least:

• the DZZD name, members, procurement reference, purpose, and duration
• the precise work packages, percentages, personnel, equipment, registrations, experience, and financial resources supplied by each member
• the lead partner, representative, power of attorney, CAIS EOP filer, electronic signatures, and limits on internal authority
• responsibility to the authority, including solidary liability where the tender requires it, and internal indemnities for member default
• decisions on price, clarifications, complaints, contract changes, claims, securities, acceptance, and settlement
• ownership and permitted use of documents, methods, intellectual property, confidential information, and personal data
• the operating account, invoice workflow, tax reserve, project accounting, audit access, payment allocation, and distributions
• insurance, subcontractors, relied-on third entities, regulatory compliance, records, and cooperation with inspections
• consequences of insolvency, lost capacity, licence expiry, sanctions, exclusion, withdrawal, or change of control

An internal exit or replacement clause does not give the members a right to change the bidder. It should make any change conditional on the PPA, the procurement documents, and the authority's legally valid approval.

Map Every Criterion to the Correct Participant

Build a compliance matrix before completing the forms. Article 59(6) PPA ties professional competence, experience, and statutory registrations or certificates to the members that will perform the corresponding activities. Other economic, financial, and technical resources can often be assessed at group level, subject to the criterion and the documents.

Article 65 PPA permits reliance on another entity's financial or technical capacity regardless of the legal relationship. For educational or professional qualifications and relevant experience, however, that entity must perform the work for which its capacity is used. A vague support letter is rarely enough: the bid should evidence a real resource commitment. The authority may also require joint liability where economic or financial capacity comes from a third party.

Exclusions are member-by-member. Under Article 57(2), an exclusion ground affecting a member affects the group. Conflict-of-interest, tax, labour, criminal, insolvency, misrepresentation, and tender-specific discretionary grounds should therefore be reviewed across all members and relevant entities. A business must not bid alone and through a consortium in the same procedure, or participate in multiple bidding groups where the statutory restriction applies.

Complete the ESPDs and Submit Through CAIS EOP

The European Single Procurement Document is called the EEDOP in Bulgarian practice. It is preliminary self-declaration evidence, not a substitute for the final supporting documents. Article 67 PPA and the official European Commission ESPD form require a separate ESPD for each member of a temporary group. Separate forms are also needed for entities whose capacity is relied upon and, where required, for subcontractors. The procurement documents may request additional group-level declarations, but those do not replace each member's EEDOP.

The agreement, technical offer, ESPDs, capacity commitments, and pricing schedules must tell the same story. Common failures include one member claiming experience while another is assigned all corresponding work, omitting a reliance entity, or describing the lead member as the sole contractor.

The Public Procurement Agency's CAIS EOP guidance includes a specific instruction for an unregistered consortium. Its tender is submitted from a member's profile or by an expressly authorised person; the platform does not remove the need for the other members' separately prepared EEDOPs. The filer needs the appropriate qualified electronic signature and authority. Before the deadline:

1. check the notice, procurement documents, draft contract, amendments, and all published questions and answers
2. create the final compliance and document matrix for every member and relied-on entity
3. generate, sign where required, and attach every correct EEDOP and supporting file in the prescribed format
4. obtain internal approval for the final technical and price offers without breaking confidentiality or signature controls
5. submit early enough to resolve platform or signature errors, then retain the CAIS EOP status and time-stamp evidence

The EU eForms are structured forms used mainly for procurement notices. They do not replace the bidder's tender, EEDOPs, or the documents in the CAIS EOP workspace. Clarifications after opening cannot be used to redesign the bidder, move work packages, or repair a material technical or price change.

Bid Security and Contract Security Are Different

Bulgarian national law does not provide for a participation or bid security. The Public Procurement Agency's official eForms implementation guidance expressly says the corresponding financial-guarantee field must be answered “no.” A procurement document that appears to demand bid security needs immediate legal review rather than automatic payment.

Article 111 PPA instead permits the authority to require security for proper contract performance and for an advance. Performance security cannot generally exceed 10% of the contract value (a lower special ceiling applies to certain reserved contracts). The winner chooses among the statutory forms subject to the tender. For an unincorporated group, a member may be the depositor, guarantee applicant, or insurance policyholder, but the wording must cover the contractor and satisfy the draft contract exactly.

Prepare the Award-to-Contract File Early

The preferred bidder must produce current evidence for the exclusion and selection requirements, including the relevant third parties and subcontractors, plus the contract security and any mandatory licence or registration evidence. Failure to complete the pre-contract file can cost the award even after ranking first.

Article 70 of the current PPA Implementing Regulation is particularly important. If the winner is an unincorporated group and the authority did not require incorporation, the public contract is signed after the contractor presents certified tax-registration and BULSTAT-registration evidence, or equivalent documents from its country of establishment. Bulgarian DZZDs are subject to the BULSTAT Register; the Registry Agency's filing guidance states the seven-day filing period.

Plan the registration, authorised signatory, bank account, guarantee wording, insurance, and tax onboarding before the award notice. Bank compliance can take time, especially with foreign members; our business bank-account guide explains the usual onboarding evidence.

Perform and Account as the Awarded Consortium

The authority contracts with the successful consortium described in the bid, not with an informal rotating group of suppliers. The representative should run one deliverables register, approval calendar, correspondence file, change control, and evidence trail. Member sub-ledgers should reconcile to the DZZD's project accounts and the contract's acceptance and payment rules.

The DZZD is treated as a taxable enterprise for Bulgarian corporate-tax and accounting purposes. It should issue compliant invoices as contractor, keep separate books, and accept electronic invoices where the public contract and law require them. Partner payments and distributions should follow the written agreement and tax analysis, not an improvised percentage split of authority receipts. See our guide to annual financial statements for the wider reporting framework.

VAT requires an early, separate check. Apart from the general domestic turnover threshold, Article 132(5) of the VAT Act can require registration of an unincorporated DZZD when a VAT-registered person becomes a member. The National Revenue Agency's registration service describes the seven-day application rule for that case. Foreign members also raise permanent-establishment, withholding, payroll, VAT, sanctions, and beneficial-owner questions that the tender itself does not resolve.

Do Not Assume a Member Can Be Replaced

At tender stage, a clarification cannot ordinarily transform the bidder or move the capacity on which qualification depended. A rule permitting replacement of an excluded third-party capacity provider is not a general right to substitute a consortium member.

After signature, Article 116 PPA restricts changes to the contractor and applies its conditions to circumstances affecting members of an unincorporated group. Replacement may be possible only within an exhaustive statutory route, such as a sufficiently clear original review clause or qualifying succession that meets all conditions. Commercial convenience, an internal disagreement, or a member's wish to leave is not enough. Seek advice before any ownership, membership, allocation, or representation change.

A Final Rejection-Risk Check

Before submission, confirm that:

• every member is named consistently across CAIS EOP, the agreement, EEDOPs, technical offer, price documents, and signatures
• the representative's authority covers submission, clarifications, complaints, contract signature, guarantees, invoices, and contract administration
• each regulated activity and experience criterion follows the member actually performing that work
• every member, relied-on entity, and relevant subcontractor has supplied the required declarations and is free from applicable exclusion grounds
• resource commitments are specific, available for the whole period, and do not conflict with another tender
• totals, work percentages, timelines, staffing, and subcontracting data reconcile
• files use the prescribed format and signatures, and the final submission status and time stamp are saved
• the team can complete BULSTAT, tax, VAT, banking, security, and final-evidence steps within the award timetable

Lion Consult can help structure a procurement-specific DZZD agreement, map the selection criteria to the correct members, and prepare the Bulgarian registration and award-to-contract file. Contact our team before the bid is locked, when inconsistencies can still be corrected.

Final disclaimer: Public-procurement outcomes depend on the live notice, procedure, contracting authority's clarifications, and facts of every member. Obtain Bulgarian procurement, regulatory, tax, and accounting advice before submitting a tender or changing an awarded consortium.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a DZZD bid for a Bulgarian public contract without becoming a company?

Yes. The Public Procurement Act and Directive 2014/24/EU allow groups of economic operators to tender without a particular legal form. The authority may require the successful group to create a legal person only where necessary for performance and expressly justified under the Bulgarian procedure.

Must every DZZD member submit a separate ESPD/EEDOP?

Normally yes. Each group member submits its own EEDOP, and separate forms are required for entities whose capacity is relied upon and for subcontractors where applicable. The procurement documents may also request group-level declarations, but they do not replace each member's EEDOP.

Can DZZD members combine their selection capacity?

Many economic, financial, and technical resources may be combined according to the criterion and tender. Professional competence, experience, statutory registrations, and certificates must follow the member allocated the corresponding work; a relied-on entity's relevant qualifications or experience must be used in actual performance.

Is bid security required in Bulgarian public procurement?

Bulgarian national procurement law does not provide for participation or bid security. The selected contractor may instead have to provide performance and advance-payment security under Article 111 of the Public Procurement Act and the procurement documents.

When does a successful DZZD need BULSTAT and tax registration?

A Bulgarian DZZD is generally filed in BULSTAT within seven days of formation. If an unincorporated group wins and incorporation was not required, Article 70 of the implementing regulation requires certified tax-registration and BULSTAT evidence, or foreign equivalents, before the public contract is signed.

Are all DZZD members jointly liable to the contracting authority?

A DZZD has no separate limited-liability shield, but solidarity should not be assumed for every civil obligation. The authority may require solidary liability, and the consortium agreement, bid, governing commercial-law rules, and public contract must state the position clearly.

Can a DZZD replace a member after submitting or winning the tender?

Not as a routine correction. Bid-stage clarifications cannot generally transform the bidder or move relied-on capacity. After signature, any contractor or consortium-member change must fit the exhaustive routes and conditions in Article 116 of the Public Procurement Act and the original procurement documents.