Why is culture uninteresting to politicians? Why is there little money in this area, but on the contrary, it is being used incorrectly? The Minister of Culture Evtim Miloshev is a guest on the show “Why?“ on bTV.
“I don't think that culture is uninteresting. Rather, this is a superimposed slight cliché, because the money in culture is never enough. Now the ambitions of our government are to have a gradual increase in funds, but to have transparency, to have expediency or efficiency. And I think that things will be far better“, he said.
In his words, tourism and culture have many common points where interests intersect - especially with the presentation of Bulgaria around the world and in Europe. But according to him, Bulgaria needs more visibility.
„The difference is that tourism works with business. On the other hand, business is the opposite, while culture is not a commercial product. The creation of a cultural product is related to the activities of the state and the financing of cultural products“, Miloshev pointed out.
„Perhaps institutes that have something to hide or have something not to show will most likely not like me. I don't want to please everyone. I like difficult decisions, that's what I can say“, he noted.
On Friday, the minister presented data that sounds scandalous - although the National Palace of Culture is at a loss of 48 million, the director of the National Palace of Culture - Andriyana Tatarova, receives a salary of almost 14,000 euros, which is many times more than both the president and the prime minister.
„I don't know why these people set such salaries for themselves. First, this is illegal – I am convinced. The focus went to the salary, which is something that I define as very arrogant, although I do not want to give qualifications. But the big focus is on the state of the company. Because the arrogance comes from the fact that the state of the company is in a miserable state, in a very difficult state. And the salaries are scandalous“, pointed out the Minister of Culture.
In his words, the company is profitable – as they stated yesterday from there, but if depreciation is removed.
“But depreciation cannot be removed, because they are the basis for the wastage of this state resource, which is contributed to the composition of the company and on the basis of which they do this business. This has been a big problem for the NDK since 2014“, he said.
“I took the trouble to read the audit reports, which are absolutely public and are in the Commercial Register, and any citizen or institution can read them. It is clearly stated there that as early as 2014, it was reported that the company's assets were falling below the authorized capital. This is a big problem, because the Commercial Law gives one year for the company to stabilize, and if this does not happen, any prosecutor can now go to court and request the termination of the company. This has been the big systemic problem for years“, commented Evtim Miloshev.
According to him, the management and administration of the NDK, the Board of Directors, do not have the right to determine their own salaries.
“They did it themselves. In addition, a protocol was drawn up that was passed — Unfortunately, Associate Professor Chobanov became the focus of this whole story. In my opinion, he signed after being misled," the minister explained.
„There will be a recalculation of salaries and I will ask that this money, which since August 5 last year has been a little over 100 thousand euros, be returned to the company," he said.
„The focus is on the NDK company. The management are not the owners of this asset, they are civil servants. And that is why the arrogance is so great - in that they have given themselves such salaries, that they have given themselves 102 euros and 40 cents for food vouchers. Were these funds so insufficient for you that you also gave yourself 102 euros and 40 cents for food," the minister asked.
"Next week, the regulatory act will be repealed. I will appoint a procurator in the company, so that there is greater transparency. I will appoint a combined inspection between the inspectorate and the audit.
The internal inspectorate, which will monitor the legality of document flow. There are rules. Because this document, which changed the methodology in order to make this large salary, there is no information about who drafted it, no information about who approved it, there are no motives for this change in the regulations for the implementation of the Law on Public Enterprises", Miloshev pointed out.
"The management should fight for their release themselves. I think that they should take responsibility, and these decisions are in some way spontaneous. This is not a question of personal attitude. This is responsibility. This is responsibility for a company that has almost half a billion leva in capital in its assets. And this capital is a symbol. The National Palace of Culture is a symbol. I categorically say: transparency, responsibility and expediency," the minister said.
He commented that there will be no 10% reduction in the culture budget, and that the ruling party's program includes a phased increase in cultural funds, while clearly observing transparency, expediency and efficiency of funds.
In his words, we urgently need to choose the host city of "Eurovision" in 2027.
"Our cabinet, the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister have an extremely positive attitude towards this opportunity that the individual talent of this girl Dara brought us — this hosting, which is a huge platform for Bulgaria in 2027. I think we will take advantage of this. This is not just a concert. This is a process," Miloshev said.