Bulgaria's Haskovo City Hall Shuts Doors over Unpaid Debt

A view of downtown Haskovo in southern Bulgaria. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

The City Hall in Bulgaria's Haskovo is the first one to close doors over unpaid debts, the Bulgarian private TV Channel bTV informed Tuesday.

The Haskovo Mayor is expected to make an official statement later during the day. All municipal employees have been sent on one-week leave.

The closure comes after the Haskovo Regional Court ruled in February to freeze the City Hall bank accounts. The ruling was later confirmed by the Plovdiv Court of Appeals.

The claim was filed by two companies, which are owed over BGN 3.5 M by the City Hall for road construction and the construction of social homes.

At the time of the ruling, the City Hall announced they can handle the "finance blockade" for a month only after which day care centers will be left in the cold and without food, and the cleaning of the city streets will be halted. The municipality will also become unable to make payments to its BGN 20 M loan.

The Mayor, Georgi Ivanov, says the amount of BGN 3.5 M is debatable and more court trials are pending while the businesses insist they had to use legal protection after waiting for a long time to receive any payment from the City Hall.

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