The Metropolitan Municipality publishes the result of the commissioned audit of the Center for Urban Mobility (City Mobility Center). The full text of the report, which covers the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023, is available on the municipality's official website, BTA reported.
We are publishing the report from the internal audit of CGM, about which we receive many questions. We also have tons of questions. Some of them are rhetorical. We also have a call - for all companies of which the Metropolitan Municipal Council (SOC) is the principal, to switch to full transparency mode, commented the mayor on his Facebook profile. This report opens the conversation about the management of a two-billion-dollar economy in Sofia, as much as the turnover of the companies, he added.
BGN 0.5 billion of Sofia residents and the entire metropolitan transport (except the metro, whose activity should be the subject of a separate analysis) depend on the state of the Central Municipal Corporation, the mayor said. He recalled that many of the mandates of the governing bodies of municipal companies, especially in the "Transport" sector have expired and it is high time to change them.
About BGN 135 million have been accumulated and accounted for as receivables for commissions of the Center to the Metropolitan Municipality (SO) on the company's balance sheet. However, these receivables are not properly documented according to the Bulgarian tax and accounting legislation, which in turn makes it difficult for them to be legally paid by the municipality, pointed out Vasil Terziev. According to him, the write-off or, in other words, the accounting reflection of these receivables as uncollectible on the balance sheet of CGM would seriously shake the financial condition of the latter with a high probability that it will fulfill the conditions of the Commercial Law for filing a bankruptcy petition.
According to the mayor, the question of why the problem has been neglected for so many years should be answered by the management of the City Council over the years and the relevant deputy mayor of the City Council for the relevant period.
CGM does not accurately and completely fulfill its obligations for accountability and transparency towards the CO, and the obligations themselves can be sensitively further developed and specified. Monthly and quarterly reports on the implementation of the activities under the contract with the Municipal Corporation have not been provided - regularly or at all - the capital's mayor also stated. If direction "Transport" has this information, it will be able to closely monitor the resource endowment of the sector and make strategies for its financing and management. The non-fulfilment of these obligations makes it difficult or impossible to react in a timely manner in the event of significant problems arising in the provision of metropolitan transport, commented Terziev.
The report repeatedly points out the lack of clear standards, rules and criteria set out in the internal documents of the CGM and established in the contractual framework with the Sofia Municipality as a reason and possibility for weak fiscal discipline, non-transparency and the assumption of documentary inconsistencies and untraceability of the funds spent. writes Vasil Terziev and added that the exercise of control and pressure for the introduction of such clear rules and standards has always been within the powers of SOS, as the owner of CGM.
The mayor of Sofia raises a number of questions, including how it is possible for a company to turn into a black box with the joint efforts of management. How is it possible to allow a company with principal SOS to receive on a single piece of paper the economic framework that is supposed to inform decisions for millions, determining the state and functioning of Sofia's transport, Terziev also asks. "How do we expect Sofia to develop, Sofia's transport to develop, if we have no data on where we are going? What is the supervisory board of CGM doing, which is supposed to protect the interests of the people of Sofia in the company?", the capital mayor also asks as questions.
The constructive reading of the situation is that the SOS and the majorities in it have a lot to do so that these municipal companies can make a contribution to the city, not a deficit, Vasil Terziev points out.
The CGM audit was initiated by Mayor Vasil Terziev in January.