The Court of Accounts has initiated proceedings to establish a possible conflict of interest in relation to MP Delyan Peevski, Nova TV reports. The investigation began after a report was received on July 31, raising questions about the correspondence between the MP's declared assets and income and his real lifestyle.
The decision was made under the current Law on Combating Corruption among Persons Holding Public Offices, with the proceedings covering the period during which Peevski was a member of parliament in the 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd National Assembly.
According to the law, the investigation will cover the last three years. The Court of Auditors has three months to complete the proceedings, which may be extended in the event of factual or legal complexity. After its completion, the institution will issue a reasoned decision on whether a conflict of interest exists.
The Court of Auditors specifies that the proceedings were initiated within the framework of the transitional provisions of the new anti-corruption law. Until the new Anti-Corruption Commission is formed, it is the Court of Accounts that continues to carry out checks on property declarations and consider signals of conflict of interest according to the current procedure.
By law, a conflict of interest can be established if three conditions are simultaneously met - the person holds a public office, has exercised a specific power, and this has occurred in the presence of a private interest that has resulted in a benefit for him or a person related to him.
The proceedings were initiated after on July 31, the Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev notified the Court of Accounts with a request to verify the property status and declarations of Delyan Peevski.
In his signal, the minister expresses doubts about a discrepancy between the officially declared property and the MP's lifestyle, also drawing attention to data on flights on private planes in recent years. According to Demerdzhiev, it should be checked whether expenses incurred by third parties represent undeclared benefits that should have been reflected in the asset declarations.
The reason for the signal was the information presented by the Minister of the Interior to the National Assembly about Peevski's trips on private planes, including to Dubai. According to Demerdzhiev, there are grounds to check whether some of these flights were financed by other persons in order to circumvent the restrictions resulting from the sanctions under the global “Magnitsky“ law.
For his part, Delyan Peevski has already stated that he did not use public funds for these trips. According to him, six of the flights were paid for by the law firm “Angelov, Andreev and Partners“.