site.bta Socialists Call for "External Audit" of Government Debt
Socialists Call for "External Audit" of Government Debt
Sofia, February 20 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) calls for hiring what it calls "an external company" to audit the government debt of 16 billion leva rather than leave the audit to caretaker Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev.
BSP leader Kornelia Ninova initially urged an audit by the caretaker government. She said her position was called for by a remark by ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov that "the debt sits untouched in the fiscal reserve". "We have long been asking why the Borissov government took out a debt of 16 billion leva for Bulgaria. Who will repay it? He lied when he said that the money sits in the reserve," said Ninova.
Caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdjikov said in a TV interview Monday that he is not planning an audit of the government debt because it would make it seem that he is running party errands and because his government has other priorities.
Responding to Ninova's call for an audit, Borissov recalled that the present Finance Minister Kiril Ananiev was deputy finance minister in the Borissov government. "It means that Kiril Ananiev will have to audit himself," he said.
Ninova said that Borissov is using Ananiev to "try wash his hands". "But you can't hold a deputy minister responsible for the decisions of the whole government and the parliamentary majority in the previous Parliament," said the Socialist leader.
She also saw a contradiction between Borissov's explanation about the money sitting untouched in the reserve and a subsequent remark by Borissov's Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov who said that it has been spent to cover the deficit and repay an old loan.
"Mr Goranov told us to read the Finance Ministry reports but he underestimates us. The report doesn't say what the brokers for the debt were and what fees they were paid, or what interest we will be paying and when, and how much each of us will have to take out from his or her own pocket," the BSP leader argued.
She further urged the caretaker government to leave it to the government that will be formed after the March 26 general elections to nominate a new Bulgarian member of the European Commission after Kristalina Georgieva left the Commission for a job with the World Bank.
Caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdjikov has made it clear that he is willing to make a nomination for the Commission even though President Rumen Radev is adamant that the decision is for the regular government to make.
Finally, Ninova said that the wages of MPs must be frozen and that this is what the Socialists will propose at the start of the next Parliament.
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