The Mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev refers today to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) regarding potential abuses related to waste management in the capital and the operation of the waste plant during the previous management of the Sofia Municipality. This became clear at a briefing today. The reason for the report was the discovery of documents that raise doubts that household waste was illegally reported as separated plastic in order to fulfill the conditions of the EU financing contract.
With his report, Terziev calls for an inspection of contracts financed with European funds and their implementation, as well as for an analysis of possible violations of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Bulgaria, including embezzlement of public funds, document fraud, fraud with European funds, a crime in office and illegal waste management.
“We referred the matter to the European Public Prosecutor's Office because this case concerns European funds. The last time we referred the matter to the Bulgarian Public Prosecutor's Office, the response was something like “there is a crime, there are no culprits“. This does not deter us and we will not stop reporting to all competent institutions when we discover something wrong.” This was said by Vasil Terziev.
The Mechanical-Biological Treatment Plant (MBT), part of the Sofia Waste Treatment Plant (STP), was built with European funds worth over 256 million leva under the operational program "Environment 2007-2013". The contract for financing the plant has strict clauses and sustainability requirements, which according to the report were violated.
Based on a comparison between different streams of reporting documents, the new management of the SPTO and the Sofia Municipality has identified coincidences that raise suspicions of intentional abuse and malicious manipulation during the previous management.
One of the identified coincidences raises suspicions that household waste was reported as recyclable in order to comply with the sustainability clauses, when in reality it was exported from the plant and buried at the landfill in Dolni Bogrov.
Here is what the coincidences look like: In the period 2016-2021, more than 200 trips with exports from SPTO, declared as plastic (recyclable material separated from household waste), completely coincide in time and quantity with trips accepted and deposited as household waste at the landfill “Dolni Bogrov“. In addition to the date, time and quantity in the established routes, there is also a coincidence with the name of the company that removed the material reported as recyclable from the SPTO and deposited household waste in Dolni Bogrov, as well as the registration numbers of the trucks that carried out the routes.
According to the signal of Mayor Vasil Terziev to the European Public Prosecutor's Office, these actions could constitute abuse of European funds, since the contracts for financing the waste plant include sustainability clauses. They are related to the European Union's goals for reducing environmental impact and set a commitment to a minimum amount of separate recyclable waste on an annual basis (in implementation of Article 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and the Financial Regulation (EU) 2018/1046).
Stolichna Municipality declares its readiness to fully cooperate with the European Public Prosecutor's Office during the investigation in order to ensure transparency, accountability and compliance with the law in the management of public funds and the interests of the citizens of Sofia.
Stolichna Municipality recalls that in January 2024, Vasil Terziev's team notified the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office of abuses at the plant. The reason for this was the results of an internal audit, which showed a discrepancy of nearly 120 million leva. for purchased spare parts and materials that “disappeared”, while the installations in the factory needed urgent repairs.
*The alert to the European Public Prosecutor's Office was submitted in accordance with Article 22(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, which governs the competence of the EPPO in relation to crimes affecting the financial interests of the European Union.