The first of a series of meetings aimed at cutting off corruption schemes and restoring justice in society was held in the building of the Council of Ministers. “Justice in a civilized society does not return from the streets and with actions of the government alone, but returns with the actions of the judiciary”, Prime Minister Rumen Radev commented during the briefing.
He stressed that the executive branch will not be indifferent and will work actively to collect suitable evidence of abuses of significant public procurements.
The investigation by the Ministry of Interior and the security services has identified serious violations in the supply of guardrails across the country. The scheme involved four main companies that have built a kind of monopoly and have concluded contracts indexed at over 150 million euros. “These companies in turn have quite interesting connections, leading to political figures and our diplomatic representative”, said Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev.
He explained the mechanism by which public resources were diverted by increasing the value of orders. Part of the funds went to a company with no real activity, which investigators call a “piggy bank company”. ”It generated financial resources that served to pay for 36 flights of MP Delyan Peevski, the amount being over 5 million euros”, Demerdzhiev pointed out. He added that the company in question is owned by the father of the Bulgarian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
The name of former Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov also appears in the corruption ring, according to the authorities. According to the Ministry of Interior data, he is the landlord of one of these companies, having rented a property to him for significant amounts. “Unfortunately, these circles, which we rightly call oligarchic, have become so intertwined that you can see the connections and dependencies that can be reached”, the Interior Minister also commented.
All materials on the case have been collected in partnership with foreign services and will be provided to the Bulgarian prosecutor's office today. “We expect their declaration that they will work decisively and use these materials, which are numerous and categorical”, concluded Ivan Demerdzhiev. According to him, until now these schemes have been a taboo subject for law enforcement agencies, but the state is ready to bring the investigation to the end.
Corruption signals received by the Ministry of Interior
The Ministry of Interior is working on over 900 signals for corruption crimes, with about 500 of them related to violations in public procurement. This was announced by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior Lyubomir Nikolov.
“From day one of my assumption of office, I have set the fight against the oligarchic model and corruption as priority measures“, Nikolov said. As an example, he cited an inspection that identified four companies that, according to the Ministry of Interior, had won 90.5% of all public procurements related to the construction and installation of guardrails. Initially, the companies seemed like competitors, but subsequent analysis showed connections between them. “These are related companies with the same owners, and in close relations“, explained the Secretary General.
Nikolov also indicated that in just one year the four companies have absorbed state resources amounting to over 400 million euros.
He also reported data related to one of the owners of the companies and an aircraft purchased in 2020. According to him, the aircraft was worth 36 million leva. According to Nikolov, 36 flights were made with the plane by a “person with immunity, who is the leader of a political party”.
After the aircraft was transferred to a Maltese company to provide aviation services, 36 invoices were issued for the flights, totaling 5 million leva. “We checked the tax returns provided, from which we found that they were not declared as expenses or as a gift“, said Nikolov.
The Ministry of Interior will submit the collected data to the prosecutor's office to assess whether there are grounds for initiating proceedings and establishing a possible crime. “We will present data and facts on which we will continue to investigate the possible influence on persons related to the MP in question“, added the Secretary General.