Bulgaria's Ruling Party to Decide on Another Lobbyist Scandal

The Bulgarian MP from the ruling party GERB, Genoveva Aleksieva (R), was also accused of draining health insurance funds for her own benefit. Photo by BGNES

The Executive Committee of the Bulgarian ruling party GERB and Genoveva Aleksieva herself should decide whether she should resign from her positions due to the recent scandals she was involved in.

The statement was made by the Chair of the Parliamentary Health Committee, Desislava Atanasova. She said Tuesday that Aleksieva should decide whether to resign as a Deputy Chair of the Health committee and to leave her position as a MP from Bulgaria's ruling party GERB.

On Monday, a Bulgarian ophthalmologist, Prof. Pravoslava Guguchkova, accused Aleksieva of draining funds from the Health Insurance Fund.

Guguchkova has stated that the GERB MP used her influence to slate separate funds for the condition known as “lazy eye”in children while the National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK) already pays for it through another insurance path.

She has also pointed out that Aleksieva had a private ophthalmology clinic for children, which works with NZOK.

The name of the GERB MP began circulating in the media last week when it was revealed she was included as a member of the Specialized Scientific Council of Ophthalmology that has assessed her own daughter in a competition for associate professors and was allowed to cast a vote.

The Chair of the Parliamentary Health Committee has declined giving a personal opinion on whether Aleksieva should resign from her positions in the Committee and the National Assembly.

“As a lawyer, however, I think she should have left the Council that was assessing her daughter,” Atanasova said.

She also added that she found out about the scandal from her colleagues and the media yesterday when she returned from a trip abroad.

“I still have not talked to Aleksieva and I do not have any information when will the meeting with GERB executive committee be held,”she said.

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