Information boards delivered for the Ministry of Interior, intended for the beginning of the Trakia Motorway, have still not been installed. This was stated by GERB Deputy Chairman Daniel Mitov on BNT's “Panorama” program.
According to him, the order was commissioned with his signature while he was Minister of Interior. Mitov said that the boards had been delivered, but according to the information available to him, they are located in storage facilities in the Zaharna Fabrika area.
“With my signature, such boards for the Ministry of Interior were commissioned last year and have already been delivered; they are supposed to be installed at the beginning of the Trakia Motorway. The people in charge must answer why they have not been installed for months,” Daniel Mitov said.He rejected claims that there had been insufficient coordination between the institutions. According to Mitov, the Road Infrastructure Agency and the Ministry of Interior had mechanisms in place for connectivity, something that was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Road Infrastructure Agency's crisis center 20 days before the serious motorway crash.
Mitov accused government representatives of attempting to shift the blame onto previous cabinets after the tragedy. He said that GERB had called for political and administrative accountability, as well as resignations.
“The responsibility can be investigated, along with everything else. But administrative and political responsibility are another matter. They can be addressed quickly,” the GERB deputy chairman said.
Criticism of public procurement
Mitov said that public procurement procedures for similar systems had been announced as early as 2016 and that, according to him, a contract had also been signed. He accused Kiril Petkov's government of terminating procurement procedures initiated by previous administrations.
The BNT report did not provide data from an institutional investigation confirming the claims regarding the delivery, location and failure to install the boards. Nor did it present a position from the Ministry of Interior, the Road Infrastructure Agency or the Council of Ministers on these specific claims.
Mitov also criticized the budget
In the conversation, Daniel Mitov described the draft state budget as lacking a clear economic policy and prospects for growth. His main criticism was directed at the planned increase in government debt.
“This is essentially a budget of progressive debt and, somehow, progressive indebtedness. At some point, the interest starts piling up,” Mitov said.He expressed his condolences to the relatives of those killed in the serious crash on the Trakia Motorway, but said that, in his view, political responsibility for the actions or inaction of the institutions should not be postponed until the investigation is completed.
Sources: bntnews.bg