site.btaInterior Ministry Incurs Lv 17.8 Mln Debt

ESD 14:21:00 02-09-2014
VE1420ES.113
113 ECONOMY - INTERIOR MINISTRY - FINANCIAL REVIEW

Interior Ministry
Incurs Lv 17.8 Mln
Debt


Sofia, September 2 (BTA) - A recent audit shows that the
Ministry of Interior owes 17.8 million leva in overdue financial
liabilities as at August 25, the Caretaker Minister of
Interior, Yordan Bakalov, told a news conference on Tuesday.

On the other hand, the Ministry expects to receive 42.6 million
leva in overdue funding and 662,000 leva in refunds under
EU-supported projects. It has also failed to obtain some of the
funding due to it for public procurement contracts, Bakalov
said.

The Interior Ministry will have no problem paying wages to
police officers, Bakalov said. He has received assurances to
this effect from Finance Minister Roumen Porozhanov. Bakalov
noted that the Interior Ministry budget, approved by the last
parliament, did not have money for a 10 per cent pay rise and
wage supplements for the police which were prescribed by the new
Ministry of Interior Act.

Bakalov said he has cancelled a public procurement procedure for
a 53 million leva contract to supply road traffic surveillance
cameras. The idea was that the contractor would be paid with
money from road traffic penalties, but this implied that he
would get more than the projected price of the contract.

Internal checks have found that the Interior Ministry has not
tracked, investigated, or wiretapped any of the protestors
against the 2013-2014 government of Prime Minister Plamen
Oresharski, Bakalov said.

The Interior Ministry, the prosecution magistracy and the State
Agency for National Security will, as usual, set up a national
interagency unit for the purposes of the early parliamentary
elections on October 5, he said. A new development is that such
units will also be established in individual administrative
regions. The Minister aspires to build a large network to combat
election fraud and ensure a transparent ballot.

The crowd control barriers which stood around the parliament
building from November 2013 until August 2014 were apparently
used in violation of a ban on private donations to the Interior
Ministry, because part of the barriers were donated to the
Ministry's Sofia Directorate by two companies, Bakalov said. The
matter is being investigated, he added, noting that it is up to
another institution to decide whether that was illegal or not.
VI/VE