The current law stipulates that the governor and deputy governors of the BNB can go on unpaid leave and hold the position of acting prime minister. But since our central bank has close cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB), and at the same time did everything possible to harmonize the law on the BNB with the ECB, a whole chapter was inserted with an article on the independence of the central bank. Independence means that the Prime Minister, whoever he is, should not then implement decisions of the Council of Ministers, even more so if he is in the post of governor or deputy governor of the BNB.
This was stated by the financier Lyubomir Karimanski in the program "The Day ON AIR", when asked if there is a conflict of interest if Petar Chobanov becomes acting prime minister.
According to him, the new law implies that the governor and deputy governors of the BNB should refrain from the office of acting prime minister. According to him, the case is even more serious in the Audit Office.
"Doesn't Gorica Grancharova herself discover a conflict of interest in becoming acting prime minister and then auditing the election campaign itself while she was acting prime minister? This is an absolute conflict of interest," Karimanski stressed.
The case with the Bulgarian Development Bank
The guest pointed out that this bank should be transferred so that it really helps small and medium-sized businesses. He noted that the same businessmen own a large part of the credit portfolio of this bank.
"This concentration was never subjected to the necessary stress tests to break it. From 2016 to 2021, there was a concentration of loans in the same legal entities. The management of this bank was in sufficiently close relations with the principal of the bank - the government. Anyone who is currently silent has most likely been tied up. The supervisory and management board must be held accountable. One should see the BNB reports and what they say about credit concentrations. We are only talking about the same company. The legal connectivity has been transferred, but the issue is in the business connectivity," Karimanski explained.
The financier is of the opinion that the main fault lies within the bank, it did not provide itself with the necessary collateral.
"There must have been pressure on the bank. Why hasn't the prosecutor's office taken an interest so far? The bank must be as transparent as possible, there is no transparency there. The central bank should have been aware if this loan would eat into the capital of the BDB and action should have been taken accordingly. And to track how all the companies were transferred," Karimanski insisted.