The Minister of Education and Science, Prof. Georgi Valchev, not only failed to provide the prosecutor's office and the State Financial Inspection Agency (SFIA) with the audit report compiled by the Inspectorate of the ministry he heads regarding the already disclosed financial violations at NATFA, but he also has no intention of doing so. This became clear from his response to a question sent by the MP from “Democratic Bulgaria” Pavel Popov within the framework of Friday's parliamentary control.
The audit report itself reveals serious violations of the financial management of the Academy's funds, the most striking among them being the payment of cash rewards to persons who are not in employment relations with the institution, cash incentives to employees for activities that constitute part of their main work duties, illegal payment of additional remuneration for work arising from the rector's management contract, conclusion of contracts with an identical or similar subject, as well as contracts for repairs without specifics regarding the type, volume and quantity of implementation. The MP also pointed out the lack of a specific procedure for awarding public contracts.
As a “peculiar peak achievement“ of the rector Prof. Miroslav Dachev Pavel Popov specified the information for organizing a mechanism for the refund of 20 percent of the paid student fees, tied to a minimum success of students from grade 3. In his words, this leads to a reduction in the actually paid fees below the legally established minimum amount and to a reduction in the higher education institution's own revenues.
When asked why, in the presence of such obvious violations, the report was not submitted by the Minister of the Prosecutor's Office and the ADFI, the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Valchev replied that, in his opinion, the audit did not establish sufficient data on crimes committed within the meaning of the Criminal Code. However, the minister's opinion is refuted by the opinion of prosecutors, who commented that according to the data and findings presented in the report, a reasonable assumption can be made that the elements of the crimes under Art. 219, Art. 282 and Art. 283 of the Criminal Code were committed – general official crimes and mismanagement.
Minister Valchev's refusal to refer the matter to the competent state institutions and to downplay what is happening at the theater and film academy creates a reasonable assumption that a political umbrella is being placed over the rector, since the two of them until recently participated jointly in the ill-fated Association of State Higher Education Schools. With regard to the termination of this participation, Prof. Valchev found himself in a position of incompatibility with the position he held, as he was removed only at the beginning of August, outside all the deadlines provided for by law. This association became the minister's preferred partner after he took office, with its new chairman, Prof. Dachev, presenting a statement in support of the recently adopted amendments to the Higher Education Act regarding the method of forming student fees, provisions of which, according to the report, he had been violating until recently.
It was Prof. Miroslav Dachev who first initiated the process of dissolving the 33-year-old Council of Rectors and creating a parallel structure - its counterpart. For his part, Minister Valchev suddenly "discovered" legal problems in its existence that no one of his predecessors in office had ever identified.
The protests of students and lecturers at NATFA against the management of Prof. Miroslav Dachev and the demands for his resignation broke out at the beginning of the summer and continue to this day. The rector did not even appear at the official opening ceremony of the academic year and refused to meet with his opposing representatives of the academic community, who have already raised demands that the audit report be sent immediately to the prosecutor's office.