The acting Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Nikolay Naydenov stated in the studio of “Your Day“ that he is not fighting with the Association of Road Assistance Companies, but is looking for a solution to the controversial practice of the state paying for the removal of damaged heavy goods vehicles on highways.
“First of all, let me say that I am not fighting with anyone. Yesterday I also received this association. We talked for about an hour and a half and reached constructive solutions“, he said.
According to him, an agreement has been reached to create a working group to develop a new mechanism for assigning the service. “We agreed to form a working group and come up with a way to assign this service“, the minister pointed out.
What is “state road assistance“
Naydenov explained that it is a service for removing damaged and crashed heavy and light trucks from highways.
“First, it is not free. It is paid for from the budget of the RIA. Nothing is free. This service is for removing damaged and crashed heavy and light trucks, with the noble intention of keeping them off the road. They are more difficult to lift, require specialized equipment and by law must be moved to the emergency lane. And it only applies to motorways“, the minister added.
According to him, however, the service has been expanded beyond its original design, for a reason that is yet to be established.
The minister announced that since the summer of last year, the “Road Infrastructure“ Agency has begun to allocate significant funds for this activity. “The state has been issuing a request since last year, since the summer, through the RIA, that it will provide money for this service. And it is not a small amount - 2 million leva are already being spent per month for this service“, he said.
He emphasized that he is not against the service itself, but against the way in which it is financed and organized. “In no case am I generally against the service. "I am generally against RIA engaging in this service," said Naydenov.
The minister clarified that he did not order the termination of the road assistance, but only stopped payments by RIA. "I have also told "Automagistrali" and the regional road departments not to make requests, because we will not pay them," explained Naydenov.
Naydenov claims that at the moment there is practically a monopoly. "It comes from the fact that one company is taking advantage of this service. And it has some subcontractors - about 10-20. Which contradicts the entire public procurement. They should declare subcontractors“, said the minister.
Naydenov was categorical that in his opinion the RIA should not be involved in such a service.“The agency is involved in the construction and maintenance of roads and facilities on them. And this is an activity related to what happens on the roads themselves and with safety“, he said.
According to him, such a function should be transferred to another institution. “There is a State Agency for Road Safety. It is under the Council of Ministers. This service should go there. Insurers should also participate“, the minister believes.
He emphasized that his goal is to bring back the free market. “There are enough industry chambers of carriers, as it was before the summer of last year“, the minister pointed out.
However, he did not rule out the possibility that the state will continue to finance the service, but under different rules. “I will urgently set up a working group to see why this situation has come to this and how we can get out of it, so that we can say: yes, the state is ready to give money for this service, but under clear rules, so as not to lead to monopolization, which is a fact“, said Naydenov.
When asked if he sees a corruption connection in this case, the minister refused to make any definitive conclusions.
Naydenov added that there is no reason for the company that is currently providing the service to sue the ministry. “We do not have a contract with this company. This company has a contract with the company that is hired for current repairs and maintenance. "We are talking about a construction company that has no business lifting trucks," he said.
The minister announced that after the meeting, the tension had subsided. "I have already spoken to them. This is old news. We had a meeting yesterday evening. It was constructive, it was not hostile at all," he said.
However, Naydenov questioned the representativeness of the organization. "Yesterday morning I had doubts about their legitimacy, for the simple reason that they were registered last year, in October, as a private interest company," the minister said.
He said that he expected the organization to show how many members it had and what capacity it represented.
Regarding the construction of part of the Plovdiv ring road - a 4-kilometer section known as “Skobeleva maika“, Naydenov rejected claims that he had stopped the project. “I have not stopped this project, on the contrary. The mayor of Plovdiv and I have been working together for two years. Together, this project was frozen and that's how we revived it“, the minister said.
According to him, the project was prepared by the Plovdiv municipality and then handed over to the RIA for implementation.
Nikolay Naydenov said that before he joined the MRDPW, there was a “stop light“ on the financing of certain municipalities. According to him, the funds were distributed unevenly, and this is clearly evident from the new maps and the ministry's information system.
He explained that he found chaotically collected data in various Excel spreadsheets, without a clear structure.“All the data was scattered across several computers. In one field there was both leva and euro“, the minister said.
After the information was collected and arranged, according to him, it is now clear which municipalities were favored. “It is clear which municipalities are excellent. The big question is why exactly they were like that“, he said.
Naydenov claims that formally everything was legal, because a simple mechanism was used - some municipalities received payments, while others did not. The minister assured that the ministry is currently trying to catch up. “I signed for 70 million leva in one day. After Easter we will continue and we will equalize all municipalities“, said Naydenov.
According to him, the main problem of road infrastructure now is the lack of funds. He calculated that Bulgaria should allocate at least 3 billion leva annually for roads, and currently about 1.3 billion is being allocated.