“On Monday, I submitted a report to the prosecutor’s office, which concerns the work of assisting Ukrainian refugees.”
This was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, who is the head of the National Operational Staff at the Council of Ministers. He added:
“After the headquarters worked long enough, we regulated this activity well. The fact that for a comparable period the regular cabinet spent BGN 150 million, while the caretaker government spent BGN 43 million, made an impression. This prompted an inspection by the National Operational Headquarters, which was carried out at the Ministry of Tourism. „Unfortunately, a number of omissions and violations were found, including the requirements of normative acts, including creating a danger for the return of European funds, with which this process was financed.”
As an example, the minister pointed out that over 43% of the funds were paid to 24 individuals, who were named as contact persons for 42 companies.
“This raises many questions and we will do what is necessary to answer them”, the minister said.
In addition, more than BGN 93 million were paid according to protocols in which it was not clearly identified who was assisted, as well as the number of persons who were assisted. According to the interior minister, there are a number of violations that can be treated as crimes. The most striking facts are that the so-called „dead souls“ are most likely financed – people who only have documents to stay in certain hotels, with the aim of acquiring funds.
“We will do our best to find out what these funds were used for and by whom”, he said and expressed expectation that the prosecutor’s office, among all the other signals it is working on, will look into this one and have results soon.
