An investigation by the Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) has identified a potential scheme for illegal subcontracting in the repair activities of the Trakia Motorway in June of this year.
The ACF explains that the chain includes a company associated with the underworld boss Christoforos Amanatidis - Taki, as well as companies involved in the scandal with the siphoning off of over 54 million leva intended for the construction of the Hemus Motorway.
The project, which is worth millions of euros, was assigned by the Road Infrastructure Agency (API) to the Highways Agency EAD, although the state-owned company does not have the necessary capacity to carry out such activities - a fact established by the National Audit Office back in 2021.
For its part, "Avtomagistrali" has concluded a subcontract with "Nivel stroy" EOOD. The ACF emphasizes that this company, associated with Taki, gained momentum during the third government of Boyko Borisov and received lucrative road construction contracts in the last days of the "Zhelyazkov" cabinet.
In addition, it has become clear from publications on social networks that other contractors for the repair are "Groma Hold" EOOD and "European Roads" AD, against whose managers the prosecutor's office has been investigating for two years in connection with the siphoning off of millions for the construction of the "Hemus" motorway. Ultimately, they were cleared of criminal charges after the intervention of senior members of the prosecutor's office.
"Automagistrali" EAD has proven to lack the capacity to carry out repair work of such a scale, as ACF has previously signaled, yet RIA repeatedly assigns such work to the state-owned company. The real result is that in this way the legislation is circumvented, which should guarantee transparent, competitive and effective spending of public funds.
"In this case, there is no economic logic in reassigning one activity several times. We can only guess what percentage of the value of the signed contracts actually goes to repair activities and what percentage is diverted to the companies at different levels", commented the legal expert from the CAF Sofia Zheleva.
The CAF also reminds of its investigation "Hemusgate", which shows how in the fall of 2023, prosecutor Ivaylo Zanev from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office is preparing to accuse Hristo Savev, sole owner of "Groma Hold" EOOD, the manager of the company Viktor Velev and the executive director of "European Roads" Margarita Popivanova of forming and leading an organized crime group that embezzled 54 million leva intended for the construction of "Hemus". Shortly before the indictment was submitted to the court, Ivaylo Zanev and the other prosecutors who worked on the investigation were removed. As a result, the case never reached a courtroom.
The "Hemusgate" scandal does not seem to have stopped the activity of the two companies in public procurement worth millions of euros.
A check in the CAIS regarding the public procurement for the repair of the "Hemus", "Trakia" and "Struma" motorways with number 00044-2023-0018 with a total value of 365,927,524.38 euros shows that the contractor for separate position 3: "Trakia" motorway is "Avtomagistrali" EAD. And the only published subcontract is with "Nivel stroy" EOOD.
According to the contract, almost all activities, 5 out of a total of 6, assigned to "Avtomagistrali" have been reassigned to the private company. These are all construction, repair and maintenance activities on the "Trakia" Motorway.
However, publications by "Groma Hold" and "European Roads" on social networks from June 2026 show that they are actively carrying out repair activities on the ground on the "Trakia" Motorway." In published videos, workers and equipment with the distinctive signs of the two companies can be seen.
"European Roads" have commented on ACF that it is carrying out construction and repair activities on the "Trakia" Motorway in its capacity as an official subcontractor of the state company "Automagistrali" EAD based on concluded contractual relations.
"Something more - even at the level of public procurement "European Roads" AD was nominated by "Automagistrali" EAD as an official subcontractor. For the implementation of the repair, our company engaged additional specialized machine resources from external contractors...", the company explains.
Sofia Jeleva specified that ACF cannot verify the claim of "European Roads" AD, since such a subcontract has not been published in the electronic portal for public procurement, and such a contract has not been provided by the company itself.
"Even if such a contract exists, however, the question remains why "Automagistrali" EAD wins a public procurement contract at all, over 80% of the activities in which are not carried out by it, but by a subcontractor?", asks the legal expert.
As a curious fact, ACF also points out that one of the external contractors with whom "European Roads" AD in turn claims to be working is the company "Groma Hold" EOOD, which was also a candidate in the public procurement contract for the repair of the "Trakia" Motorway. Although it did not win the contract, the company is apparently working on the repair as an additional contractor.
In its official response to ACF, "Groma Hold" claims that: ""...participates in the implementation of the construction and repair activities on the "Trakia" Motorway as a company providing equipment and mechanization, based on existing contractual relations with "European Roads" AD after an invitation by the company."
However, a publication by the company on social networks from June 24 clearly shows that the participation of "Groma Hold" is not limited to providing equipment and mechanization, but its employees perform repair work on the ground. In the text accompanying the video, the company specifically describes the repair activities it is carrying out: "Today we are completing the laying of the geogrid along the route, tomorrow we are completing the implementation of the binder layer, and at the beginning of next week the laying of the wearing layer of asphalt is due."
However, these activities are in violation of the contract between RIA and "Automagistrali" EAD from October 1, 2024. According to Section XI, Art. 18, the subcontractor does not have the right to subcontract activities under the contract. An exception is provided only for the supply of goods, materials or equipment. The supply does not include installation, which in this case would mean laying pavement or performing construction and installation works.
In connection with these circumstances, ACF raises several important questions:
API and "Automagistrali" EAD have not answered the questions posed by ACF.
"We expect API and "Automagistrali" to explain what necessitates the use of the companies "Groma Hold" and "European Roads" in the repairs of the "Trakia" Motorway, on what legal basis these companies carry out activities on the ground and why this information is not clearly reflected in the publicly available documents under the contract?", commented Boyko Stankushev, Director of ACF.