April 23, 2010


The report on the expenditures, appointments and transactions conducted over the last year of the mandate of the government of Sergey Stanishev will be sent to the Prosecutor General. The National Assembly has passed the decision with the votes of 114 MPs in favor and 42 against.

The report discovers that in the last year of its term the cabinet of PM Stanishev has spent, far of the public eye, an enormous amount of money. The summary of the report was presented in the parliament by Stoyan Mavrodiev, head of the temporary Committee, set by the parliament several months ago with the task to look on the violations. The document recognizes that many of the expenses in this period were made at the brink of the law, using often various loopholes, in order for the money to be spent to the last limit. Based on the checked documents, the commission concludes that the government’s pre-election spending of the funds at hand was marred by low efficiency.

The report indicates that in the period between November and December 2008, the ruling than coalition had spent a huge amount of money leading to the shrinkage of the fiscal reserve by nearly 30 percent, from a record 12.1 billion to 8.4 billion at year-end. Businesses have been misled to enter into contracts, not backed by funding. The volume of these contracts is estimated in the report at over BGN 2 billion.

In a situation of dramatic deterioration of the economic environment, during its last 12 months, the government was misleading the public that a crisis does not exist and the country would remain "an oasis of stability on the map of Europe”. In this way the previous government had been able to spend in no time huge resources to finance vague policies and dubious projects, said Stoyan Mavrodiev. The report also uncovers some diplomatic and executive appointments, carried out in the last minute, without transparency, based on agreements between the coalition partners.

The report does not spare the problems with the EU funds absorption. The measures undertaken by the previous government in connection with the crisis over the waste management of the capital Sofia are deemed illegal in the report and such that has led to some 1.4 million leva loss for the state budget and concludes that in doing this the government had jeopardized the absorption of money allocated under OP "Environment". The report also points to irregularities in the construction of Belene NPP, the project “Tsankov Kamuk "," Vodno Kolelo "in the region of Kardjali. The temporary committee of inquiry has sent over 100 letters asking for information and documents from ministries, agencies, regional governors and state media. In response it has received over 35,000 pages of material, reported Stoyan Mavrodiev.

The debate and final decision on the report are to be continued and voted tomorrow.