Corruption practices began with the emergence of the so-called democratic process, PR expert Diana Damyanova pointed out to "Face to Face" on bTV.
After we entered the European Union, there was a weakening of this process due to European control, but then they found the way to this control. There are similar corruption practices all over the world, but it is a question of limited percentages, she added.
When they see that such outrages pass without consequences for anyone, it alienates people. This is not an isolated incident, this is a series of events that follow a similar pattern – something comes out, there is a lot of noise in the media and it subsides. There is no adequate response from the institutions, Andrey Yankulov emphasized.
Corruption is a big problem, but the lack of quality of Bulgarian politicians is also a problem. Being a politician in Bulgaria is not a dignified profession. It seems that people who can do nothing else take up this profession in Bulgaria. Bulgarian politicians live in their own world. This cannot help but alienate people, Damyanova noted.
There must be a purge of the so-called rotten apples so that state institutions can function in a different way. We cannot do something in the same way and expect a different result, Yankulov commented.
In the program "Face to Face" on BTV Andrey Yankulov from the Anti-Corruption Fund announced that the Fund is investigating a corruption scheme worth millions in the awarding of contracts in road construction.
The ACF investigation, called "API and the 7 percent", is based on documents and the testimony of Anton Taskov, owner of "Bitulayt" OOD, one of the leading companies for installing road markings in Bulgaria.
The issue is a common corruption practice in road construction, in which a consortium is formed, there is a shell company that will receive the money from the public procurement of the Road Infrastructure Agency. We are talking about serious sums. The more interesting question is what the path of the money is from there on, said Yankulov.