site.btaBulgarian Municipalities Hostage to Failure to Adopt Budget, Ongoing Political Chaos, Association Head Says

The municipalities are hostage to the failure to adopt a budget and the ongoing political chaos, Executive Director of the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria Silviya Georgieva told Bulgarian National TV here on Thursday.

She explained that on 6 January they received only half of the funds for the salaries of state employees - teachers, social workers, nurses, cultural institutes and municipal administration - just BGN 350 million instead of the full BGN 700 million.

There is still no clarity when the remaining funds will be received, Georgieva added. "We hope that within this week there will be clarity when the salaries for these state-delegated activities will be received," she also said. "If we do not receive the remaining 50% of the due activities, there is a danger that people will be left without salaries," Georgieva said.

In order to pay the salaries in full by the end of January, the available transitional balances can be used where they exist, but not all municipalities have them, she explained. "We hope for a quick communication with the Ministry of Finance to resolve this case and a quick review of the draft budget in the [relevant parliamentary] committees and Parliament," Georgieva said. She recalled that municipalities create their own budgets within 25 days after the publication of the State Budget Act.

Another issue that needs to be resolved urgently is that of payments under the National Investment Programme. "Currently our investment projects are also suspended and there are no payments because there is no adopted state budget for 2025," Georgieva said.

Contracts have been signed and more than 1,500 projects are being implemented, municipalities owe payments and there are pending penalties, which is understandable, she explained. The companies have been crediting the municipalities for the last six months, there are fully implemented projects that have not been paid for and these are water, sewerage, roads, sidewalks and infrastructure projects that have not been renovated for decades, Georgieva added. She recalled that the total value of the programme is BGN 7 billion and it includes over 3,000 projects to be implemented by 2027.

Another issue is the projects under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, where 1,500 contracts have already been signed and they are currently being implemented with the municipalities' own funds or with loans.