The total amount paid by the state for the construction of the "Railway" tunnel as part of the "Struma" motorway under construction, is BGN 258,426,949. The state's offer for the construction of the most modern and longest tunnel in our country was worth BGN 215 million, and the funds paid to the consortium of three companies amounted to nearly 40 million more. This is according to the report of the regional ministry sent to the media, BNR reports. The inquiry is due to the European Public Prosecutor's Office's investigation, following a tip from the National Tax Service, in one of the three companies, with suspicion of financial abuse of euro funds and money laundering.
The public order for the construction of the tunnel was won in the summer of 2018 by the consortium - DZZD "AM Struma Tunnel 2018", with participants "GP Group", which is the leading company, "Global Construction". Ltd. and "Via Plan" Ltd.
The most funds - nearly BGN 155 million - were paid out in the period from April 2019 to May 2021, when Petya Avramova was the regional minister. BGN 38 million was transferred by the state within the next 4 months of the same year to the acting minister Violeta Komitova.
During the time of Grozdan Karadzhov, the consortium received a little over 19 million BGN. From December 2022 to June 2023, the second largest amount was transferred for completed and invoiced construction and installation activities - BGN 42.5 million. Then the regional minister was Ivan Shishkov from Galab Donev's office.
Payment for a "Railway" tunnel was finalized by the current resigned minister Andrey Tsekov at the end of 2023, the total amount being BGN 5.4 million. The tunnel was completed nearly 2 years ago.
How were the cash flows managed by the companies that built the longest tunnel facility in our country and whether there was misuse of euro funds and money laundering, will be said by the European Prosecutor's Office, which started an investigation on the tip of DANS.
The announcement refers to only one of the companies, and the leading company "GP Group" came out with a short message in the media that he is not the subject of the investigation.