site.btaMore Charges Brought against Former Deputy Foreign Minister Angelichin

More Charges Brought against Former Deputy Foreign Minister Angelichin

Sofia, May 10 (BTA) - Former Deputy Foreign Minister Hristo Angelichin has been charged with malfeasance in office, the prosecution office said Wednesday. Angelichin is accused of malfeasance in office with the purpose of bringing benefit to a commercial company which could have led to detriment of close to 840,000 leva (nearly 430,000 euro). The suspected wrongdoing occurred between November 17 and December 5, 2016.

On May 4 Angelichin was charged with mismanagement in the form of failing to exercise adequate control over the head of the Foreign Ministry directorate for asset management in January-June 2016, causing the Ministry detriment of nearly 500,000 leva.

The charges announced on Wednesday concern wrongdoing in connection with replacement of telephone exchange systems of some Bulgarian embassies abroad. The original plan was that the telephone exchange systems would be replaced in 2017 after a public procurement procedure. It had to be an open procedure because the estimated costs would exceed a limit set by the Public Procurement Act. However, no such procedure was conducted. Instead Angelichin ordered 12 embassies to immediately pay 429,422 euro to a supplier named by him.

The resulting detriment to the Foreign Ministry was not equal to the above-mentioned sum because the State Agency for National Security and the ministry conducted a check, after which some of the embassies refrained from buying the suggested equipment, while other missions took action to get their money back.