site.btaRegional Minister Pavlova Says Housing Rehabilitation Programme Is Target of Slander Campaign

Regional Minister Pavlova Says Housing Rehabilitation Programme Is Target of Slander Campaign


Pleven, North Central Bulgaria, February 2 (BTA) - A campaign
against the national programme for rehabilitation of pre-fab
dwellings has been launched on such a scale that flyers full of
lies are being put in people's post boxes, Regional Development
and Urban Planning Minister Lilyana Pavlova said at Monday's
presentation of the project.
 
In Pavlova's opinion, the various speculations are political and
 should be refuted at the very beginning. The programme has two
important effects - a social and an economic one. The result
will be a changed outlook of the buildings and lower costs for
the heating of households. From an economic point of view, the
investment of 1,000 million leva in construction will also be an
 opportunity for SMEs and employment in the sector. 

"24 Chassa" reported that the residents of several residential 
areas in Sofia - Mladost, Nadezhda, Lyulin and Serdica - 
received flyers in their postboxes against the national 
programme for rehabilitation of pre-fabricated dwellings. 
According to the flyers, the programme is aimed at "taking
possession of Bulgarians' dwellings". 

The programme could be a source of enormous corruption and lead
to higher prices of construction works, the Deputy Chairman of
the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria, Nikolai Gulubov, told a
BTA-hosted news conference in turn. In his opinion, public
procurements involving design and construction should be
separated, not implemented together, as the existing methodology
 is. 
  
According to Mincho Benov, coordinator at the Habitat for
Humanity Bulgaria NGO, and Dragomir Tzanov, Deputy Director of
EnEffect, private investments should also become part of the
programme, instead of the state providing 100 per cent of the
funding. The quality of services should be monitored with care,
Tzanov said, as bad insulation could result in bad hygiene and
mold.
    
Nikolai Marinkov, Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Lift
Association, focused on the fact that there are 120,000 lifts in
 the country, most of which were installed 35 to 40 years ago,
and there are even ones that were installed 80-90 years ago.
Most of these are in critical condition and require full
check-ups. The rehabilitation programme should cover the entire
buildings and should also include replacement of the lifts, as
well as the garden territories surrounding the buildings.