Only two days had passed, yet news of Bulgaria's failed bidding conference for its million-kilometer road project had already spread across the world. Many newspapers described the Bulgarian government as a "farce of the century."
Even the five companies that had registered at first and later withdrawn were exposed. Naturally, the financial conglomerates behind them remained submerged beneath the surface; the media still knew whom they could not afford to provoke.
For reasons unknown, all these companies released their cost estimates for the project. Without exception, not one of them came in below 100 billion lev.
For example, the London Daily commented that Bulgarian government officials had failed mathematics and scored only fifty points in school, which was why they had also slashed the final cost by half!
The Sun Times commented that the Bulgarian government had become overrun by bureaucrats and had completely lost touch with society!
The Paris Morning Post commented that this was a farce of the new age. Bulgarian government officials had yet to wake up, and in pursuit of political achievements, they had gone so mad that they disregarded reality!
Foreign newspapers were filled with denunciations, and domestic papers had nothing kind to say either. Still, they were far more restrained, focusing solely on holding the Ministry of Transport accountable and demanding an explanation.
Beixier did not disappoint. He directly published a letter of apology in Bulgaria Daily, revealing the principal reason for the enormous gap in cost estimates.
The government budget had not taken the time value of money into account. Yet this highway construction plan was expected to take decades to turn a profit. Once the time value of money was considered, the final investment naturally differed by an enormous margin!
As for the secondary reasons, he merely touched on them in