The Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Arch. Ivan Shishkov, talks with mayors of Vidin, Lom, Oryahovo, Mizia and Vulchedrum about the infrastructure in the region.
„At this point, the legacy is roads in a deplorable condition. However, we have public procurement contracts that have been completed before us. We invited the mayors with two questions - whether they are ready and whether they want road repairs. The mayors said they agreed“, said the minister, quoted by novini.bg.
“Recently, some have been trying to say that we are continuing in the same way. No, we are not continuing in the same way. We will carry out major repairs with projects and supervision, but we also asked the mayors if they agree to complete the public procurements, conclude contracts and realize the opportunities of European funding. We cannot agree that when we want to legally develop the infrastructure in our country, the way is to terminate these public procurements that we cannot afford to do, to return the country to chaos in the next two years, not to develop the infrastructure and to lose European funding. This is part of the legacy, it is not only the lack of infrastructure, but also the public procurements that have been carried out. We can only say that at this point, with these available public procurements, we can exercise exclusive control over all subsequent public procurements that we will make“, promised Shishkov.
According to him, the infrastructure in the Northwest is in such a dire state because these contracts, including for ongoing maintenance in 2024, are the least money given to the region.
“This region is being managed in a disgraceful manner, bordering on genocide. From now on, this region will not be forgotten. Next Monday I will present all the contracts concluded so far for the infrastructure sites – company by company. I didn't want to do it, but it will be necessary to know who, when and how signed. We don't have favorite companies, but we have a favorite country“, the minister is categorical.
The mayor of Vidin, Tsvetan Tsenkov, said that the idea of regular meetings with mayors is commendable: “API should engage all possible engineers and start repairing this entire tragic infrastructure. Local government without the central government and the central government without the local government cannot.
Minister Shishkov drew attention to the fact that “nothing has been happening for a long time”: “We are getting to the point where the design is being done, it is not being finished. This is the state of affairs in the country – everything has been started and not finished, but we don't have time to wait or cancel public procurement. We must overcome all these difficulties as quickly as possible.”
He insisted on knowing whether it matters who the company is, or whether it is more important to do the job qualitatively.
Rosen Dobrev, mayor of Oryahovo Municipality, emphasized that we have no connection with the EU: “When we live in these Bulgarian territories, we must preserve the local population with infrastructure, which could happen with the commitments made by Minister Shishkov. The thesis that we can dislike or like a company is untenable. There is a law on public procurement, it is clear. Only with full control by the RIA should work be carried out, the state can show its presence there.“