Today, June 16, 2026, in Sofia, the Road Safety Institute announced to BTA that they are handing over to the Prosecutor General a full set of documents and an official protocol against Regional Minister Ivan Shishkov. The organization accuses the minister of concealing key records of the illegal construction of the “Hemus“ highway and of preparing a large-scale scheme for unlimited cost increases for projects, threatening billions of euros from the state budget. According to the institute, Shishkov's actions pose a direct threat to the country's national security and infrastructure.
The reason for the sharp reaction was the guest appearance of arch. Ivan Shishkov in the morning block of bTV, where the organization criticizes the complete absence of uncomfortable questions from the presenters. The IPB publicly asked where the drone recordings from 2021, which were supposed to prove the illegal construction on lots 4 and 5 of the “Hemus“ highway, had disappeared.
To put an end to the speculation, the institute issued an official protocol. The document proves that Ivan Shishkov personally, in his capacity as the then Deputy Minister, signed and removed the discs with the video materials from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, and they were never returned to the archive. “The thief shouts: Hold the thief!“, the IPB ironically commented on the chronology of events. This circumstance had already been officially confirmed from the parliamentary rostrum in early 2025 by the then Minister Ivan Ivanov.
The conflict escalated after the same Ivan Shishkov filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office against former minister Ivan Ivanov over construction permits issued on the same controversial sections of the highway. The Road Safety Institute defines this move as severe populism and an attempt to spread a media umbrella.
Experts ask the logical question why Shishkov is reacting only now, after he himself deprived the state of key information in 2021 by taking the archive outside the ministry. According to them, the issuance of construction permits was deliberately waited for so that possible huge payments to private interests could be launched.
Behind the curtain of concern for the treasury, a dangerous financial maneuver is hidden, the organization warns. While Shishkov claims on air that he saved funds by stopping indexations under the contracts for “Hemus“, reality shows otherwise.
The indexation has a legal a ceiling of up to 50% for the advances involved, while when switching to “price update“ any limits are removed.
In this way, the contract values can swell indefinitely.
By stopping indexation, Shishkov is actually preparing the ground for uncontrolled contract updates.
“Entrusting billions of euros from the state budget to a person with such a dangerous mind is a threat to national security and infrastructure“, the IB is categorical. They insist that the state prosecution urgently clarify on what legal basis the disks were exported, why they were hidden for five years and whether the truth was concealed in order to benefit certain oligarchic circles.
The Institute for Road Safety will not be an accomplice in concealing the truth in the name of political-oligarchic interests. A full set of information, together with the protocol proving the removal of the recordings by Shishkov is submitted to the Prosecutor General.
The IPB insists that the prosecutor's office urgently establish:
1. Who removed the recordings from the MRDPW and on what legal basis?
2. Why have they not been returned to the ministry for 5 years?
3. Was the truth about the illegal construction concealed in order to benefit certain circles through future updates without a price ceiling?
We call on the Prime Minister to immediately stop these destructive processes in the MRDPW, and the Bulgarian media - to remember their public mission and stop being a platform for convenient and directed monologues.