Bulgaria Lifts the Lid on Road Controversy

The fund former head Vesselin Georgiev is charged with awarding contracts worth tens of millions of levs to companies run by two of his brothers. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's finance ministry has declassified the financial audit of the state-owned National Road Infrastructure Fund, whose former head is being tried for corruption.

The report was issued in 2008 by KPMG Bulgaria consultancy and discloses violations and lapses that led to the freezing of funds under the PHARE and ISPA pre-accession programs.

The report also singles out cases of clash of interests in awarding contracts for construction works and supervision, which considerably exceed the expenses in the fund budget, oversights in tender procedures and contract signing.

The fund former head Vesselin Georgiev is charged with awarding contracts worth tens of millions of levs to companies run by two of his brothers. The trial has been repeatedly postponed after either the defendant or witnesses failed to appear at the court room.

The controversy that led to the freezing of the EUR 723 M earmarked to improve Bulgaria's dilapidated roads broke out following an investigation by the newspaper Kapital.

Georgiev resigned from his post under pressure from the media.

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