The Iskra.bg editorial office received an alert about a scandalous appointment in NAFA-Vidin. This caused a wave of indignation on the social network Facebook.
According to Internet users, the newly appointed official in the local structure of the National Agency of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NAFA) has a dubious past. He has been accused of poaching and setting nets in violation of the rules. They were in the Poletkov dam.
Iskra.bg contacted a representative of a local organization that fights poaching about the matter. They informed us that there is indeed such an appointment and it is about Ivo Ivanov. It is said that for some time he himself has been telling the locals in the village of Staropatitsa how they will soon see what he will become. So since yesterday the man in question is a civil servant in NAFA-Vidin.
The representative of the local organization also revealed to us that, according to unconfirmed information, Ivanov was also engaged in logging, and it is not clear whether he was also legal.
He claims that neither in Vidin nor in Montana did anyone know about this appointment, which is coming. So he tried to talk about it with Deputy Director of the NAFA Borislav Chardakov, but he told him that he was in traffic and not comfortable. So he has not been able to make contact with him. He therefore went directly to the Ministry of Agriculture to ask to meet the Deputy Minister in person to ask him how it was possible for such a person to be elected as an NAFA official.
On this occasion, Iskra.bg contacted the spokesperson of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Vidin. We were told that this information could not be confirmed at that moment because it concerned a case far back in time.
We also tried to talk with Deputy Director of NAFA Borislav Chardakov. He told us that he was traveling at that time and at this stage he couldn’t comment on whether he actually had such an appointment because he needed to check the case.
Eventually, shortly afterwards, the representative of the local anti-poaching organisation contacted us and told us that he had had a meeting with a senior official from NAFA, who in turn had spoken to one of the deputy ministers of agriculture. From him, he found out that Ivo Ivanov would be dismissed from the post to which he was appointed the following week. And this situation has come about because the preliminary check of the person in question was not carried out properly.
At the same time, local fishermen are questioning whether this appointment was in fact deliberate and questioning the integrity of the current leadership of NAFA. Furthermore, they are concerned that it is not doing a good enough job of managing the agency and that some vicious practices of the past have been inherited by the current NAFA rulers.
