Bulgaria Parliament Votes Out Head of National Healthcare

The Bulgarian parliament terminated the mandate of the head of the National Insurance Fund Zheni Nacheva over alleged abuse of power.

A total 107 Bulgarian MPs voted on Thursday for the motion to remove Nacheva from office, 10 were against and 30 MPs abstained.

The Bulgarian head of the National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK) Zheni Nacheva submitted her resignation to parliament on Wednesday after she had been urged to do so by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

In a media interview Borisov said that he is prepared to come up with a bid for the position of head of NZOK and that his nominee will also “be a woman”.

The chair of the Bulgarian Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva said on Wednesday that NZOK will not be left on autopilot and a replacement for Nacheva will be found.

During parliamentary discussions on Thursday left-wing MPs pointed out that Nacheva had been appointed just a month ago and that GERB had some explaining to do as to how aware the ruling party was of the wrongdoings in the National Health Insurance Fund.

GERB MPs responded by saying that there are not an investigative body and that prosecution will deal with the case.

Left-wing MP Mihail Mikov was cited by the media, saying that “Nacheva should not be merely let go and things should not be hushed down but that there should be an open investigation.”

Days before Nacheva’s mandate was terminated by parliament, the Sofia City Court removed her from the post of head of NZOK after the prosecution had expressed fears that she might use her position to influence the investigation.

At the beginning of the week Nacheva was accused of unlawfully increasing the budgets of three medical establishments throughout the country.

She is said to have alloted an additional BGN 800 000 to the hospital in the Bulgarian city of Sliven and about BGN 840 000 to two hospitals in Sofia – Tokuda hospital and the Military Medical Academy (VMA).

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