In a BTA interview, LB Bulgaricum Executive Director Ivaylo Lilov said that the state-owned yogurt and dairy products company has been defrauded of more than BGN 1 million since the beginning of 2023, according to preliminary data of an audit commissioned by the company's new management, which took over in October 2023. Final inspection results are expected by the end of the week, Lilov added. During the period covered by the audit, the company changed two managements.
In Lilov's words, the company was deliberately being pushed towards bankruptcy. The actions that have been taken have caused millions in damages and the current management is ready to send a report to the principal of LB Bulgaricum - the Economy Minister and State Consolidation Company, so that the prosecuting magistracy can also be referred to. The Executive Director also said that the infliction of damage to the company had started in late February and early March 2023.
LB Bulgarocum has suffered financial damage due to contracts with retail chains that have caused monthly losses of hundreds of thousands of leva. According to Lilov, those contracts were clearly disadvantageous for the company, but had been concluded nonetheless. He explained that, during the same period of time, the same products have been sold at different prices to different retail chains (some retail chains have bought those products at prices 30 to 40% lower than market prices). The executive director claims he has not found a single document that financially justifies the decisions on the prices concerned and the reasons for them.
Financial damages were inflicted on the company through valuation of expenditure, as well. Data from a study conducted with the help of outside consultants have shown that the system the company used was not configured in a way that reflects all costs, Lilov said. Costs accumulated on the company's account were not calculated in the valuation of products deliberately so that they were not priced correctly, Lilov said, adding that most likely the system was manipulated, which led to a wrong valuation of expenditure.
The audit also found that the company had changed the way it worked by starting to hire external companies for transport and logistics, as well as for legal support, despite having its own resources of such kinds. The duplication of these activities has led to a doubling of the company's costs in some cases, the director also stressed. In Lilov's words, this is a typical scheme to drain the company and put it in a position where it cannot cover its costs in order to declare bankruptcy so that its assets are sold off.
/KK/
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