site.btaCaretaker Cabinet Reports Back on First Month in Office

June 15 (BTA) - At a news briefing at the Council of
Ministers on Tuesday, members of Bulgaria's caretaker Cabinet
reported back on their performance since taking office on May
12.

Prime Minister Stefan Yanev: The more we delve into the relevant
 sectors and issues, we come across a consistent mess and lack
of rules. Corruption appears in a seemly guise. Our principles
are transparence and accountability, we will not tolerate any
other approach, nor will treat anybody as untouchable.

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov:
Holding fair elections is one of the top priorities of the
caretaker Cabinet, so that every vote cast by Bulgarian voters
could be accounted for the way it was cast and not the way
somebody wants to rig it. All necessary high-level personnel
changes at the Interior Ministry have already been made. There
was no purge at the Ministry. The people who were dismissed can
be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Deputy Prime Minister and Labour and Social Policy Minister
Galab Donev: The unemployment rate is steadily declining, and
the year-on-year decrease now tops 37 per cent. At present, the
jobless rate approximates 5.4 per cent, which is a good sign of
the Bulgarian economy gradually recovering and emerging from the
 recession into which it was forced by the COVID restriction
measures.

Deputy Prime Minister for EU Funds Management Atanas Pekanov:
Bulgaria does not risk losing the funding to which it is
entitled under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the money will
be available before the end of the year. As soon as the national
 plan is approved, 13 per cent of the amount will be disbursed.
The national plan has not been submitted to the European
Commission. There are two reasons for the delay: the preceding
government's decision not to submit it and some technical
irregularities, and our desire to improve the plan and make
adjustments ensuring that the resources will be invested in the
best possible way without compromises. More than 30 new projects
 have been received, but some of them do not meet the
Commission's requirements. We will consider about a dozen new
project proposals which we want to include in the plan.

Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov: The poor results are due to
the bad condition of the health system and the inadequate
management of the crisis. Bulgaria ranked first in coronavirus
lethality, had low vaccination uptake, and lacked an approved
general plan for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment. We
prioritized vaccinating the elderly people: those aged over 60
exceed 400,000. The project for aiding hospitals that have
admitted and treated COVID-19 patients has been overhauled, and
all these facilities will get financial support.

Economy Minister Kiril Petkov: We first exposed the Bulgarian
Development Bank (BDB) having lent 946 million leva to just 8
companies, and then we found out that 20 companies had borrowed
1.8 billion leva. The Ministry, therefore, proposed new Articles
 of Association of BDB setting the maximum amount of a loan that
 it can extend to 5 million leva. Transparency and control
commissions have been set up at the State Consolidation Company
and the Bulgarian Export Insurance Agency. An economic growth
boosting programme has been launched in partnership with
commercial banks, under which more than 2.5 billion leva in
liquidity support are available to small and medium-sized
enterprises. EU institutions, including the European Investment
Bank, have been enlisted as partners for a nearly 500 million
leva increase of the resources allocated for business under the
recovery and resilience plan. The Three Seas Initiative opens up
 yet another opportunity for support to business, with an option
 to attract companies of the magnitude of Amazon and Google to
Sofia during the Three Seas Summit in Sofia in July. Bulgarian
business executives can invite their partners from the countries
 of the Initiative. Bulgarian trade representatives abroad are
successfully competing to attract foreign investors to this
country and arrange potential export deals for Bulgarian
companies.

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev: Our principal task is to plug
the financial drain hole and improve the revenue compliance
rate. A budget revision will be submitted to a series of public
consultations, the idea being to avoid an increase of the
deficit. This may be done by cutting capital costs. The pandemic
 control measures were budgeted until the end of March, and
until the end of May they were financed at the expense of
various other items. We furnished 2.5 billion leva to support
business and aid the most vulnerable members of the population.
We found that there are no preventive and ex-post controls of
public procurements. We saw no duty of care in handling public
funds and their uncontrolled spending. Control over cash-in-hand
 held by large enterprises has been tightened.

* * *

On a proposal by the Minister of Justice, Gabriela Kozareva will
 be replaced as Executive Director of the Registry Agency, Prime
 Minister Stefan Yanev told journalists here on Tuesday. He
specified that Kozareva "refuses to work transparently and in
the interest of people" and her work is probably "motivated
otherwise".

Kozareva's dismissal comes a week after the Registry Agency
refused to register the new management of the Alexandrovska
Hospital, arguing that the proper procedure had not been
complied with. Health Minister Katsarov accused Kozareva of
acting arbitrarily and asked Justice Minister Yanaki Stoilov to
check the Agency and remove its executive director. NV/LG/DT

//