site.btaSocialists to Alert Prosecutor General about Flawed Procedures for Home Retrofitting

Socialists to Alert Prosecutor General about Flawed Procedures for Home Retrofitting

Sofia, February 21 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will alert the Prosecutor General's Office about what they see as flawed procedures conducted under the National Programme for Energy Efficiency of Multi-family Residential Buildings, former MP Zhelyo Boichev told a news conference on Tuesday.

Boichev said the BSP Headquarters has received dozens of complaints about mishandled procedures for the award of contracts to retrofit residential buildings for energy efficiency purposes. The Socialists want the Prosecutor General's Office to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the contracting process and the provision of funding by the Council of Ministers. The largest number of alerts have come from the southern cities of Plovdiv and Blagoevgrad.

Boichev wondered: "How can you pay a price of 300 leva per square metre and then find out that the same job can be done for 100 leva?". He recalled that at the start of the programme, the Regional Development and Public Works Ministry set a price ceiling of 290 lv/sq m. As the programme unfolded, the ceiling was lowered to 148 lv/sq m, and in October 2016 it became 115 lv/sq m for buildings of up to eight floors and 130 lv/sq m for taller buildings. "Where did all that extra money go? How can you have different prices for the same job?", he exclaimed.

The former lawmaker said this has been "the robbery of the century" organized by the formerly ruling GERB party and affecting every Bulgarian. The number of retrofitted buildings could have been twice as many as it is by now, he noted.