site.btaCaretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdjikov Interviewed by BTA Director General Maxim Minchev

Caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdjikov Interviewed by BTA Director General Maxim Minchev

Sofia, April 17 (BTA) - "I am proud to be part of a Bulgarian government that not only succeeded in preserving social peace but also in functioning in such a way that the cash flows into the public purse increased," caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdjikov said in an interview granted to BTA Director General Maxim Minchev.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Q: Dear Mr Gerdjkov, the members of your Cabinet conducted audits by ministry, above all of public procurements. What violations and omissions did they detect?

A: That was the advice of the once and future prime minister, Boyko Borissov. He asked us to dig very deeply. We had too little time to reach such depths. Nor was this our priority, far from that. Still, we were bound to check the state of the ministries. Every government commits violations, whether by accident or design. The point is not to turn a blind eye to them. That is why the actions envisaged in the law were taken. Detailed reports will be published on the ministries' websites at the end of April. Public procurement procedures have been suspended owing to non-conformities with the law or technical flaws, e.g. at the Ministry of Energy. At the Ministry of Health, the public procurement for the compulsory vaccines was extended under the terms set by the previous cabinet. It turned out, however, that financial resources for that procurement had not been planned. The caretaker Cabinet coped with that problem: the Health Minister indeed very ambitiously campaigned for that, and the Finance Minister proposed a feasible formula for finding the 20 million leva needed for these vaccines. The irregularities detected at the Ministry of Defence were referred to the Public Financial Inspection Agency and to the prosecution service. It is the Government's business to conduct the checks, and the specialized authorities have to take over and accordingly impose the requisite sanctions, if warranted.

Q: Did your ministers cope well with their tasks? Are you pleased with the performance of the ministers of health, economy and justice, who recently drew heavy fire in public space?

A: Above all, I would like to thank President Radev, who managed to form a cabinet of very prominent personalities. Working with them is a real pleasure. Certainly, I do have reservations about the performance of some of the ministers. But then, the ministers, too, may be dissatisfied with me. It is my principle to respect people's dignity, and I insist on making my critical remarks publicly rather than personally, when I have to do so. But there are few such cases.

You are right about the public comments about certain ministers and about certain actions of the caretaker Cabinet. It would be an understatement to say that these comments were vitriolic. Just as with previous caretaker cabinets, with us, too, what comes to the fore is the question about the prevailing will: whether it is of the prime minister, who heads the Council of Ministers as a collective body, or of the president, who selects and appoints the government. I am a jurist, I have chaired the National Assembly, and I think that there is room for improvement in this constitutional sphere. So that the two loci of power would not just speak the same language but the model of power in the transition between two regular governments would not give rise to any doubts. Even the people of my team have reproached me for being too tolerant when the government has come under pressure to take one decision or another. These things cannot and should not remain undisclosed. Not because of the vanity to speak up but for the sake of the stability of institutions and for the sake of the effectiveness that society expects from them.

Q: You have already given excellent marks to the arrangements for the March 26 parliamentary elections. DOST, however, wants them to be annulled, and others (including the Prosecutor General) argue that vote buying was not stopped. Were people's votes really bought and sold, and how far did this affect the results?

A: The arrangements for the elections made by the Government were very good. I am absolutely positive about that! Especially if we remember the complete disarray at the 2014 elections, when the members of the election commissions nearly perished at Arena Armeec Sofia. You can never keep everyone happy. Certainly, there were lots of attempts at vote buying. But the Interior Ministry and prosecuting authorities worked very effectively and many of the attempts were frustrated and a large number of pretrial proceedings were instituted, and convictions have already been secured for this exceedingly disgusting criminal conduct against democracy. The prosecution service is still checking some of the alerts - this is the due process of law in a democracy!

Q: What are the most urgent steps that have to be taken in the preparation for the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council in 2018?

A: Deputy Prime Minister Deniza Slateva is the perfect choice for this significant sector for Bulgaria. She is erudite and very ambitious, and she set a brisk pace and put things in order so that certain delays could be overcome. The important public procurements for the needs of the Presidency are being actively prepared, the coordination of the priorities of our Presidency is in an advanced stage, and the communication plan has been adopted. What matters most is that the hallmark of the period during which Bulgaria will head the EU Council will actually be the fact that the common decisions on the future of the Union will be taken during that time. This is a fantastic chance for us! We should not waste it.

Q: Even though business and the trade unions insist that the economy stagnates during elections and the State all but shuts down, budget revenues have been excellent since the beginning of the year, and a budget surplus of more than 1 billion leva is likely by the end of March. How do you account for this?

A: We can self-confidently say that our country is in a good condition, that we have achieved the democratic standards in which governments change and elections take place as a normal social fact and not as an emergency situation. The economy functions, and sector policies continue to be implemented successfully. We are all very demanding citizens of a European country, and we neither want nor can afford to stall for three months and then start from scratch. Therefore, I am proud to be part of a Bulgarian government that not only succeeded in preserving social peace but also in functioning in such a way that the cash flows into the public purse increased.

Q: The caretaker Cabinet has come under ever more frequent criticism of exceeding its powers, and the next government may have to review some decisions. Does this worry you?

A: It is hardly serious to talk of exceeding powers. But even if this is the case, the reason is our ambition to leave a good legacy to the regular government that will succeed us. We may have adopted some imprecise day-to-day decisions. Some of them, like, say, personnel changes, will probably be mended by the next government. What doesn't worry me, and I have even I decided to do it, is to hand the next prime minister a folder with ideas and pressing tasks. I find this normal and important. This is continuity. And I recommended the ministers to follow suit.

Q: Finally, do you regret accepting the office of caretaker prime minister?

A: I expected it would be hard. It turned out to be even harder - because of our poisoned social climate. I ran into a number of undercurrents, and I sustained hits below the belt, too. I realized yet again that there are bad and unscrupulous people in Bulgaria. Some of them are opinion leaders. But it is so nice that they are an exception! I met some new, wonderful people, upright and responsible, exceptionally well qualified, intelligent visionaries. There are quite a few of them. Which makes me hope that Bulgaria, stumbling over the moral midgets, will press ahead with its advancement. Seeing this hope made it worthwhile to take up the heavy cross.

And since the end of our term in office is in sight, I am tempted to say: "Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes": I have done what I could; let those who can do better.