New revelations about the way the previous rulers spent state financial resources were made by three caretaker ministers – Finance Minister Asen Vassilev, Economy Minister Kiril Petkov and Regional Development and Public Works Violeta Komitova after the regular government meeting. More than BGN 8 billion were distributed without public procurement.
In total, from 2019 to 2021, public companies in our country have spent BGN 20 billion. Of these, BGN 11 billion and 700 million were in public procurement. But BGN 8 billion and 600 million were given to certain companies without the relevant procedures. This is 40% of the money that state-owned enterprises have spent. This was emphasized by Asen Vassilev. He revealed that this information was extremely difficult to gather because the in-house procedures in question were not public and were not summarized in any register.
Vassilev explained that these „in-house“ procedures are provided only if there is a state or municipal enterprise that can perform the relevant activity and it is owned by the ministry in question. Thus, it should not use subcontractors. According to the ministers, this procedure was used to avoid public procurement and to give money to companies without tenders.
Kiril Petkov stressed that the same thing happened everywhere, namely – money was distributed without public procurement, which according to him is a waste of state resources. He gave an example with the construction of the government complex in Sofia Tech Park. There was signed a contract without a public procurement for over BGN 182 million with a company that must perform simultaneous design, construction and author’s supervision.
He also said the same thing happened during the repair of the dams. BGN 630 million were given to the State Consolidation Company for them. Kiril Petkov also pointed out the Hemus highway, for the construction of which BGN 3.71 billion were provided. The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works has allocated BGN 1.140 billion by the end of 2020. BGN 996 million were given to 45-50 companies in advance for this highway.
The company „Motorways“ has signed contracts with 30 companies without public procurement. In just 3-4 days, BGN 188 million were given in advance to these companies.
Komitova revealed that BGN 570 million for the strengthening of landslides were allocated under the same scheme, as the official reason was urgency.
