site.btaSocialists Ask Law-Enforcers to Probe Construction of Border Fence

121 - POLITICS - BORDER FENCE - SOCIALISTS - PROBE amplified 2

Socialists Ask Law-Enforcers to
Probe Construction of
Border Fence


Sofia, June 8 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party said
Thursday that it is asking the prosecution service and the State
Agency for National Security to look for a possible fraud in
the construction of a fence on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.
This was announced to the press by MP Elena Yoncheva. "We have
well-grounded suspicions that Bulgarian national security is
being traded off, that the quality of construction is inferior
for sections of the fence and this has caused the ongoing
refugee flow," said Yoncheva.

She said that a government ordinance of January 2015 says that
the entire fence should be of two layers and that a single layer
can be left only in areas along the rivers which are hard to
reach. On November 20, however, Border Police ordered the
regional governors of Haskovo, Yambol and Bourgas to go ahead
with the construction of a single-layer fence. The contractors
changed the fence design themselves to reflect the new
instructions. A report by the government inspectorate in 2017
said that the orders to build a single-layer fence contradicted
the Interior Minister's initial instructions which were at the
core of contracts the regional governors had already signed with
the companies building the fence.

"We suspect corruption and trade in national interests and
national security," said Yoncheva.

She said her fellow MPs from the Socialist group also have
suspicions about the value of the fence: the first 30 km that
were built by the Defence Ministry in January-June 2014, cost
300,000 leva/km and the price have since quadrupled.

Yoncheva went on to quote the government inspectorate's report
as saying that a large part of the border monitoring system from
Kapitan Andreevo to Lessovo was inoperable from June 2014 to
April 2017.

MP Tsvetan Tsvetanov (GERB) who is a former Interior Minister
and now heads the parliamentary internal security and public
order committee, dismissed the Socialists' accusations as an
attempt to stay in the focus of attention.

He said that the only way to contain the migrant flow is by
maintaining good relations with Turkey and being actively
involved in decision-making in the EU together with Germany and
France.

The border fence is only an extra deterrent, he said.

According to Tsvetanov, the government ordinance Yoncheva
mentions says nothing about whether it should be a single- or
double-layer fence.

"Based on the available budget, the Interior Ministry as the
contracting entity and the regional governors [of Haskovo,
Yambol and Bourgas], who are in charge of the contracting
procedures, have decided that in order to cover the entire
external border with Turkey, a single-layer fence will be built
at places with rough terrain," Tsvetanov explained.

He gave as an example Haskovo Region where 10 km of the fence is
double-layer and 20 km single-layer. "This has never been a
secret," he added.

Tsvetanov also said that of the 160 million euro that was
extended for Bulgaria by the EU for enhancing the border
protection capacity, contracts have been signed and are being
implemented for 33 million euro; contracting procedures for
another 70 million euro are about to be finalized and terms of
reference are in the pipeline for more public procurement
projects worth 57 million euro.

Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov said that the border fence
is "a very complex and serious engineering project" and
Bulgaria "should be proud of it the way China is proud of the
Great China Wall". He denied suggestions that his Patriotic
Front, the minor partner in the government coalition, is linked
to companies which have won public procurements to build the
wall.

Simeonov also said that he has submitted a complaint against
Yoncheva at the prosecution magistracy for making public
classified information contained in the details about the fence
and where the security cameras were not operational. "This, too,
could cause a migrant influx because the migrants are following
what the media report," said Simeonov.

He said that he has information that boxes with documents and
blueprints connected with the border fence "were removed" during
the period when Bulgaria has a caretaker government January to
May. It was not immediately clear from his words where the boxes
were taken from and to.

Simeonov also said that he wants to know how Yoncheva obtained
the report by the government inspectorate that she mentions.

In the corridors of Parliament, Yoncheva called "absurd" Simeonov's accusations and said all information she has is public and was provided in Parliament on May 3, 2017 during Question Time by caretaker Interior Minister Plamen Uzunov. This Question Time session was broadcast live by the Bulgarian National Television and a transcript from it can be viewed on the website of Parliament.

The spokesperson for the Prosecutor General, Roumyana Arnaoudova, said Thursday that the prosecution magistracy has asked the Public Financial Inspection Agency and the State Agency for National Security to audit the border fence and look at the contracting procedures in the three regions and for possible corruption. Neither authority has completed the audit, Arnaoudova said. PK/LN/LY

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