Ex Head of Bulgaria Railways Charged over Unfavorable State Deal

Crime | November 9, 2009, Monday // 13:04|  views

The former CEO of BDZ Hristo Monov has been charged over a deal in which the Bulgarian state lost EUR 10 M. Photo by BGNES

Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office has raised charges against Hristo Monov, former Director of the Bulgarian state-owned railway company BDZ Jsc for deliberately making a deal detrimental to the state.

On November 19, 2009, Monov approved a deal for the purchase of 30 sleeping railway cars, in which the Swiss company ARWEX AG was the executer.

According to the investigation, the Bulgarian state has lost EUR 9,990 from the detrimental deal made by Monov who paid EUR 550 000 per sleeping car, whereas the actual market price has been found to be EUR 217 000.

The Bulgarian state has already paid 90% of the cost of the cars, and has received 12 sleeping cars so far.

The sleeping cars in question are not new – they were produced in 1967-1973, and were renovated in 1997-2000. Some them had never been used.

The sleeping cars were received by BDZ Jsc with lacking technical documentation. In addition, the same price of EUR 550 000 was paid for each car without accounting for their individual technical condition.

The 12 railway cars that have already been received have only seen “cosmetic” repairs at the plant in the southern town of Svilengrad which cost BGN 30 000 per car.

According to their technical documentation, the cars do not meet the requirements of the Bulgarian state standard. The Prosecutor’s Office has alerted the new management of the BDZ over the fact that the cars in questions are in fact dangerous, and that they need to additional safety adjustments.

Hristo Monov was removed as CEO of BDZ by the new Transport Minister from the GERB government, Alexander Tsvetkov, in October 2009.

Shortly after that Minister Tsvetkov revealed that thanks to mismanagement and abuses, the state railway companies face a staggering deficit totally BGN 490 M.

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Tags: railways, BDZ, Hristo Monov, Transport Minister, Alexander Tsvetkov

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