site.btaProsecutors to Check Party Subsidies Following Alert from Slavi Show

107 POLITICS - PARTIES - SUBSIDIES - CHECK - amplified

Prosecutors to Check Party Subsidies
Following Alert
from Slavi Show


Sofia, May 22 (BTA) - Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov has ordered a probe into alleged violations of the Political Parties Act in connection with the amount of party subsidies provided in 2018, the prosecution service reported on Wednesday.

According to information released during bTV's Slavi Show on Monday, the state subsidies for political parties and coalitions in 2018 should have totalled 32,128,844 leva, but the amount actually provided was 38,684,384 leva. This put "the price" of a valid vote won at the latest parliamentary elections at 13.23 leva instead of the legally established standard of 11 leva.

The probe will be conducted by the Supreme Administrative Prosecution Office. It has to find out whether party subsidies in 2018 were calculated and disbursed in strict compliance with the Political Parties Act. The Finance Ministry, the Central Election Commission and the National Audit Office will be asked to provide relevant information. The National Audit Office is expected to cooperate in other ways as well.

Under the Political Parties Act, subsidies from the central executive budget are provided annually to the political parties and coalitions which won at least 1 per cent of the valid votes at the latest parliamentary elections. The subsidies are shared out according to the votes won. The "price" of each vote is determined every year by the State Budget Act. In 2018, it was 11 leva.

According to the team of the Slavi Show, the 2018 subsidies exceeded the legally established level of 11 leva per valid vote because the calculations were made not just on the basis of the valid votes but also included the "None" votes (those that supported none of the candidates), the votes won by independent candidates and parties which did not step over the 1 per cent threshold, and 71 votes added by the Central Election Commission.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, National Ombudsman Maya Manolova urged Parliament to exercise its powers of oversight by reviewing the actions of the executive, more specifically Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, in connection with the alleged violations of party subsidy rules. Manolova noted that if the suspicions are proven, it means that taxpayers have been afflicted with 6 million leva detriment.

She recalled that in 2016, at the proposal of the then Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Danail Kirilov, the law was modified specifically to make it impossible for "None" votes to be added to the basis for calculating party subsidies. IG/LY/VE
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