site.bta Cabinet Moves to President to Relieve from Post Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Kostov

Cabinet Moves to President to Relieve from Post Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Kostov

Sofia, February 22 (BTA) - At its regular weekly meeting on Wednesday the caretaker government decided to move to President Rumen Radev to relieve from his post Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Georgi Kostov, caretaker Interior Minister Plamen Ouzounov told reporters.

Ouzounov said that the reasons for the dismissal are "established violations affecting one of the core principles of the Interior Ministry: the political neutrality". Ouzounov also claimed that Kostov harmed the interests of the Interior Ministry and of the public. Until the nomination and appointment of a new Interior Ministry Chief Secretary, his work will be performed by the Interior Ministry Deputy Chief Secretary, Ouzounov said. The Interior Minister said that as a gesture of political correctness he will not nominate a person to replace Kostov and will leave this to the next regularly appointed government.

The Interior Minister said that Kostov perpetrated the violations in 2015-2016. Ouzounov said that sufficient data have been collected that Kostov exerted pressure on former and incumbent Interior Ministry officers who were removed from their positions not according to the proper procedure or were relegated to lower posts. To the officers Kostov claimed he removed them due to political pressure exerted on himself. Asked whether the political pressure came from the then governing GERB party, Ouzounov declined to answer, stressing that the pressure was political. The collected data about pressure is in respect of five officers.

Ouzounov either did not reply to a reporter's question whether regional directors of the Interior Ministry will be replaced. He said that the heads of the regional directorates should meet certain criteria: performance, loyalty to the system and professional experience.

The suggestion about Kostov's dismissal came less than a week after Ouzounov denied that tension existed between him and the Interior Ministry Chief Secretary. Speaking to reporters on February 16, Ouzounov said he had made no such proposal to the Council of Ministers while Kostov for his part said he was not planning to resign.