OLAF Denies Appointing Ex Bulgarian Agriculture Fund CEO

OLAF denied influencing in any way the appointment of Kalina Ilieva as head of Bulgaria's Agriculture Fund. Photo by BGNES

The EU anti-fraud office OLAF has denied to have had any influence on the appointment of former Bulgaria's Agriculture Fund CEO, Kalina Ilieva, the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported.

OLAF spokesperson, Pavel Borkovec, has told BNR that the office was informed by Bulgarian authorities about Ilieva's appointment, but did not interfere in any way.

Borkovec denied publications in the media, which state that the fast career of the ex Agriculture Fund CEO was due to her "close connections with the OLAF representative in Bulgaria, Arnault Hainan."

He said that Hainan was not OLAF's representative, but was only an employee who worked in Bulgaria and in several other countries. In his words, Hainan could not comment on the publications because OLAF employees are not allowed top talk directly to the media.

However, Borkovec said that Hainan denied the accusations and that OLAF would support him if he decided to take any actions in his defense.

Other publications in the Bulgarian media include the statement that Ilieva has send 400 signals to OLAF for possible frauds in the absorption of agriculture funds in Bulgaria during her mere one year in office.

According to Borkovec, the total amount of signals from Bulgarian authorities were 93. However, he refused to say whether Ilieva had not submitted the alleged 400 signals or they were just not taken into consideration.

The former head of the Bulgarian Agriculture Fund was dismissed in October after it was revealed she was pregnant. Previously, she lied she had a tumor and was very ill in an attempt to conceal the pregnancy.

Another scandal erupted at the end of November, when it turned out that her diploma from the Berlin Technical Institute is forged.

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