site.btaDSB Demands Transport Minister's Resignation in Wake of Transport Administration Scandal

DSB Demands Transport Minister's Resignation in Wake of Transport Administration Scandal

Sofia, April 11 (BTA) - The Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) demanded the resignation of Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski at a news conference on Monday. The resignation is requested because of the recent scandal involving the Director of Road Transport Administration (RTA).

Seven employees of the RTA, including its Director Tsvetelin Tsvetanov, were arrested along with other RTA officers suspected of corruption. The alleged corrupt practices have included extortion of road hauliers, bribes taken in order to get transport operations licensed, faking of driving test results and counterfeiting of driving licences.

In the motives for asking Moskovski's resignation DSB says that to date no one has taken the political responsibility for what happened at the road transport authority, while Tsvetanov himself, now a 'political orphan' in DSB Deputy Chairman Atanas Atanassov's words, was appointed with the signature of the Transport Minister in coordination with the Prime Minister.

Atanassov added that there are two corruption schemes at RTA - one of GERB and one of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), but that of MRF probably implicated that of GERB, Atanassov said.

A probe conducted by DSB has revealed information about extremely high corruption potential to get transport operations licensed in Blagoevgrad, Haskovo and Vidin. The licences, DSB leader Radan Kunev said, were most frequently awarded to members of two parties: GERB and MRF.

The state should investigate comprehensively the manner in which party members are appointed in these structures and how after that they take over private business in the name of party interests, Kunev said. In his words, the situation with State Fund Agriculture, state forestry enterprises and RTA is similar.

That is why DSB want the Prosecutor General to shed light on which prosecutor precisely is responsible for each of the major corruption investigations involving public procurement.