On the issue of the budget - let me say that there are people who understand budgets much better, there are budget officers, finance specialists. The tension in the budget comes down to one thing - how feasible it is. The budget problems have been a problem for the overall economic development of Bulgaria since 1990. There are objections to the large public expenditures for the state administration, for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the judicial system... And this is reasonable. The budget's main goal is to cover unemployment in Bulgaria. Under Todor Zhivkov, we had state property and we needed a lot of civil servants to manage this property. Now there is not a lot of state property, but we still have a lot of civil servants. Bulgarian capitalism cannot absorb these redundant workers if a reduction is made. This was announced to Lili Marinkova in the studio “FACTI“ and the program “Razgovor“ by economist Prof. Georgi Chankov, a lecturer at the UNWE.
“If between 5,000 and 50,000 civil servants are released, they will have nowhere to go. There are too many workers who “fold sheets“, we also have high-tech activities that require qualifications, and we do not have these personnel. Unfortunately, our economy cannot absorb them. We have empty niches, jobs with high qualifications and narrow specialization. We cannot have a workforce being thrown out onto the street, because we do not have a solution for this. We see the solution as being to appoint people to niche positions – and have them receive low salaries. For example, in municipalities. From time to time, industries rebel, for example, in the National Social Security Institute, salaries are well below average. We have a problem there. Other agencies are also declaring their readiness to protest“, the expert commented.
“In general, I argue that these jobs in the administration simply cover the inability of the economy to cover a given workforce that does not have qualifications. So, out of 20 people employed in one department - three or four work, three or four study, and the others are simply “landed“ for a certain period of time. This can be solved in a few months, but there is no development strategy. And so every year the budget is patched“, Chankov pointed out.
“The policy of “We continue the change“, which was presented to us as a policy of anticipatory development at the expense of loans – that good economies live on loans, is not so good. The intentions were missed. The budgetary discipline that supported the situation for years has been missed today and now we have to face these problems. But no one can face a reduction in their salary, right! The impasse continues. We will extinguish the tension by taking on debts to the level we can bear, or above this level, but simply because we will have no choice“, the expert also shared.
See more of the conversation in the VIDEO.