Bulgarian MPs Reject President's Audit Office Veto

The Bulgarian MPs from Ataka, the Blue Coalition and GERB votes secured the rejection of the presidential veto on the NAO Act. File photo

Bulgaria's Members of the Parliament rejected Wednesday the veto of President, Georgi Parvanov, on the National Audit Office (NAO) Act with 134 votes against it and 39 for.

With the support of the right-wing Blue Coalition, the far-right, nationalist Ataka party, the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party was able to counter the presidential veto.

The Act was passed on November 24 by the MPs after first and second reading, but Parvanov sent it back on December 1 with a decree to re-examine it over two issues – the new, one-person model of managing NAO and the debatable authority of its director to propose the dismissal of its employees.

The GERB MPs say the NAO Act does not violate the Constitution and counter the objections of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) the new legislation would turn the office into a repressive instrument over the fact it deals with audits not political activities.

The other opposition party – the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) threatened to start a list with MPs signatures to file a claim with the Constitutional Court.

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