site.btaProsecution to Probe Food Safety Agency amid ASF Outbreak

August 8 (BTA) - Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov has
ordered the specialized prosecution to carry out a check at the
Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) for possible malfeasance in
office and conclusion of detrimental contracts in connection
with animal waste disposal amid an outbreak of African swine
fever (ASF).

In the course of the inspection the BFSA management will be
required to provide all documents related to a 2017 procurement
tender for the disposal of animal waste.

The prosecution will also probe contracts concluded by BFSA in
2018 in a direct contracting procedure for the disposal of
animal waste in mobile incinerators as well as all annexes
signed until now.

The check will examine all payments effected by BFSA to the
contracted companies and the activities for which they have been
 paid in order to establish the actual quantity of disposed
animal waste and the amount of payments. In addition, the check
will assess what control had been exercised by BFSA over the
contractors and the disposed waste quantities for which pay was
due as well as information about the capacity of the
incinerators.

Prosecutors will probe mobile incinerators of each of the
contracted companies, will cross check disposed waste by date
and location and will seek information about the state of the
existing incinerator facilities and why they are not used to
dispose of pig carcasses now.

The prosecutors will examine all orders and instructions by BFSA
 in connection with the prescribed manner for disposing of pig
carcasses in order to establish why dead pigs are buried and not
 burned or disposed of in a different manner and assess the
possible health risks to the human population. The check will
probe how mobile incinerators have been utilized during the
current ASF outbreak as well as in earlier outbreaks of avian
flu and ovine rinderpest and the payments effected by BFSA.

The check has been prompted by a film, called 'War for
Carcasses', by investigative journalist Genka Shikerova and the
Anti-Corruption Fund  which was scheduled to be broadcast on
Nova TV but was banned from airing. RY/PP