Regional Minister Ivan Shishkov commented on the program "From the Day" the scandal surrounding the public procurements for guardrails and the allegations of pressure on the former director of „Automagistrali“.
According to him, the resignation of the head of the state-owned company was a personal choice and has nothing to do with the guardrails.
„The case with the installation of the guardrails and the resignation of the head of „Automagistrali“ I think I said it very clearly to many of your colleagues - personal choice, personal reasons. I don't think we should dig into people's personal space.“
Shishkov defined as an attack the allegations of pressure on the former head of “Automagistrali“ to install guardrails without a contract, without projects, without a certificate. According to him, non-governmental organizations may be behind the attacks, which spread information that does not correspond to reality.
"It may turn out that the opposition has its spokespeople. And these spokespeople are not political figures. You know very well that there are certain non-governmental organizations that started this attack. Which also suggested to people that they have information. Including initially information even came out that there was a conflict with the management of RIA, which has nothing to do with reality. Do you see how they create rumors? And how they create attacks. You said it very correctly. This is an attack. And it has nothing to do with reality in any way."
According to Minister Shishkov, the purpose of such attacks is clear.
"Well, do the math. The moment we stop buying those guardrails from those companies that got into the criminal chronicles, that got into, not to say even further, because the whole society understood what happened, suddenly an attack begins that we will install guardrails not from these companies. And it is no coincidence that Minister Demerdzhiev almost proves it in the National Assembly. I am sure that it will be proven. And the moment we stop buying these guardrails from these companies, it turns out that we start to be attacked. Everyone can do this calculation."
Shishkov recalled that the public procurement for the maintenance and replacement of the guardrails was carried out before the caretaker cabinet, and the contracts were concluded within the framework of previous administrations.
"These public procurements, which were made for these companies to maintain and replace the guardrails, were made before our caretaker cabinet. That is, they were made in the first half of 2022. This is the cabinet of Kiril Petkov, when Mr. Karadzhov was the minister.
BNT: However, this indexation, which you criticize, was not during your time?
- No. It is after us. It is within the framework of the assembly and within the framework of the regular cabinet."