Scandalous violations in the municipality of Kozloduy, over BGN 50,000 of municipal money was spent on clothes, underwear and entertainment

The Audit Chamber found scandalous violations in Kozloduy municipality. An audit report of the institution shows that over BGN 50,000 of municipal funds were spent on clothes, underwear, cosmetic procedures, restaurants, overnight stays and more. The report covers the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, and the mayor at that time is Marinela Nikolova, reports BNT.

The report states that BGN 76,008.54 from the municipality's budget were paid without primary accounting documents. Of these, BGN 50,383.33 are not related to the activities and functions of the municipal administration. Page 38 of the document describes in detail what the money went to:

clothes, underwear, shoes – BGN 16,776.99
medical services – BGN 10,420.00;
hotels, restaurants, café-aperitifs, café-patisseries, snack bar, etc. – BGN 8181.52;
clothing vouchers – BGN 1800.00;
goods from pet stores – BGN 3065.56; perfumery and cosmetics – BGN 2336.45;
medical cosmetics, medicines, inhaler and others from pharmacies – BGN 783.06;
household goods from a store – BGN 2271.95;
TVs, fridge and freezer – BGN 4076.90;
umbrellas and sunbeds – BGN 60.00;
silver sample 925 – BGN 250.00;
home whitening system with LED lamp – BGN 150.00;
medical textbooks and other literature from bookstores – BGN 210.90
For another BGN 65,358.06 from the municipal funds, no invoices were issued by the suppliers of goods and services, but only receipts/fiscal vouchers. Of these, BGN 4,733.83 were paid on illegal fiscal receipts.

BGN 860.92 was paid on receipts for receiving a money transfer without a primary accounting document - invoice.

Expenses for BGN 3174.35 were incurred on invoices without attached fiscal receipts.

BGN 4,177.21 was given from the treasury on invoices that were issued to individuals and not in the name of the municipality.

BGN 2,438.00 were paid for overnight stays, without orders for a business trip being issued by the mayor.

The Court of Audit found that the illegal and inexpedient execution of the mentioned expenses led to the increase of the reported expenses for 2021 by BGN 50,383.33 - all this at the expense of financing the activities and functions of the municipality.

The Mayor did not comply with the principles of good financial management and lawful spending of the funds under the Municipality's budget for 2021, as a result of which the requirements of the accounting and tax legislation were not complied with, the Audit Chamber found.