Bulgaria State Agriculture Fund Spent BGN 2,2 M on PR in 2 Months

Kalina Ilieva, head of the State Agriculture Fund, accounted Monday for her first three months in office. Photo by BGNES

The former management of the Bulgarian State Agriculture Fund spent BGN 2,2 M on PR and information campaigns in the last two months of its term.

This was announced Monday by the acting Director of the Fund, Kalina Ilieva, who said that sum was supposed to allocated for activities later in the year.

“Have you heard of a press conference in Brussels for which BGN 30 000 were paid but it never took place?,” Ilieva asked journalists in Sofia Monday.

In June and July 2009, the former heads of the State Agriculture Fund, which has been one of the most problematic and scandal-ridden executive agencies during the term of the Stanishev government, spend BGN 1,8 M on information campaigns on three TV channels. One of them got a contract for BGN 1,2 M, and the other two – for BGN 300 000 each, Ilieva revealed.

She said that in the first 100 days of the GERB government, the State Agriculture Fund has seen a total of EUR 102,4 M of SAPARD Program Funds being unblocked.

Ilieva pointed out as successes of her team the delays of loan repayment for agricultural producers, and the signing of 4 317 contracts under the Rural Areas Development Program of the EU, which entail investments totaling BGN 1,2 B, including EU subsidies for BGN 897 M.

The Fund still has to process 6 335 projects with total investments for BGN 3,5 M of which BGN 2,8 B are to be requested from the EU funding program.

In 2008, Bulgaria saw the blocking of millions of EUR under the SAPARD program over violations in the State Agriculture Fund, which also acts the country’s SAPARD Executive Agency.

Kalina Ilieva replaced Alizan Yahova as the head of the Fund in August 2009.

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