At the request of the European Prosecutor's Office in Sofia, on Wednesday , ten searches were carried out in an investigation into alleged subsidy fraud involving the restoration of a church funded by the EU, BNT reported.
In the searches carried out in Burgas, Petrich, Rila and Sofia, documents and evidence were seized.
The facts date back to 2017, when a public procurement was held for a project to restore frescoes and architectural details of a 12th-century church. The project was financed by the Cross-Border Cooperation Program - INTERREG IPA, of the EU. The church is a historical and cultural monument of Bulgaria.
According to the investigation, the company that won the tender did not have the necessary expertise and outsourced the work to another company. However, the subcontractor also lacked the necessary technical skills and hired a third company that had the necessary expertise and carried out the restoration.
The amount for financing the restoration was 198,000 euros. Based on the evidence, the first contractor received the full amount and paid only €70,000 to the subcontractors – thereby keeping €128,000 without carrying out any project activities, to the detriment of the EU's financial interests.