„This border is extremely important. Our desire is for her to be safe. More than 1,500 trucks pass through the day. The state and its representatives in the face of the BFSA are doing this work and I hope the effect will become visible in a very short period of time. Because now findings are being made that unrealistically show the things that are happening. And I want to emphasize that since May 20, fees and payments of BGN 1,216,000 have been collected. I was asked a question by one of the deputies, otherwise how much would go to the state budget and I told him – No more than 150,000 levs.“
This was commented to Iskra.bg by the executive director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) Hristo Daskalov in connection with the case of the termination of the contract with the private company at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint and the assumption of its functions by the state. Daskalov stressed that this huge difference comes from the fact that the state already collects all fees and they go to the budget. So far, this has been done by the private company Eurolab 2011.
The BAH director also said that he had spent 7 days at the border checkpoint since May 20. He saw that a truck did not have the practical possibility of being serviced in 6 minutes. And the private company has previously declared just such a period of time. According to Daskalov, at least 12 to 15 minutes are needed. To find out where this significant difference comes from, he yesterday ordered employees to report to him in writing how they managed to service the trucks for 6 minutes before May 20, after only parking takes about 1.5 minutes.
„And I want to see what this great organization was like and we can learn, as they say, a lesson“, he said.
Daskalov also explained that after the state took control of the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint, the following were sabotaged:
„These attempts were made by representatives of the company. The company that operates the cargo has a very important obligation and that is to enter the cargo data 24 hours before the truck physically arrives at our border. Once this data has been entered, it must be validated, and when it is validated, it will already be released on our inspectors’ computers and we will carry out a physical check at our border. Imagine coming 50 trucks that don’t have that data. That is, the truck is standing there and clogging this space, and negotiations are underway. The driver calls the owner in Turkey. He starts calling the company that operates. When she decides, she will validate his data. And in this way a technological time is lost and these crowds are created, which the media covered en masse. This is one of the ways to do this so-called sabotage. The other thing that is done is to process the documents of the rear trucks. And those in front are waiting for their documents to be processed.“
He also said that the loading and unloading activity is not ancillary.
„Because one inspector is standing there and may want to remove three pallets, maybe all of them. This is already his decision. They are prepared how to do it and this thing needs to be known. You cannot count on loading and unloading from a private company. If their boss tells the workers that they will stop working today, the border will be blocked“, said the director of the BFSA.
He revealed to Iskra.bg that cameras were installed at the checkpoint in 2006, but it turned out that they did not work at all and this has been established now.
