Bulgarian Cabinet Shuts Down State Reserve Agency

The plan to close the State Reserve, executed by the cabinet Wednesday, is the brainchild of Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian State Agency State Reserve and War-time Stocks is going to be closed, according to the final decision of the cabinet.

The members of the Council of Ministers made the decision Wednesday, during the regularly scheduled meeting. They further announced the establishment of a new Executive Agency for Oil and Oil Products at the Transport Ministry under amendments of the Mandatory Oil Reserves Act.

The staff of the now former Reserve was 600 employees while the "Oil" Agency will only have 39.

The other activities of the Reserve will be redirected to the Ministries of Defense and Interior, respectively for wartime and time of peace. Transferring the grain and other farming products reserves to the Agriculture Ministry is still being debated.

On Saturday, he Chair of the State, Stanimir Peev, said he was not aware of the plan of Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, to close the agency, and had learned the news from the media.

Peev stated he also failed to grasp Djankov's claims that the move will save about BGN 80-90 M for the State Treasury, stressing the budget of the agency is BGN 50-70 a year while for 2012 it had been set at BGN 45 M.

According to the Reserve Head, even the layoff of all 600 employees would only lead to savings in the amount of BGN 4 M from salaries while redirecting activities of the agency would, in reality, up expenses.

As expected, the cabinet approved upping the minimum monthly wage from BGN 270 to BGN 290, effective May 1, 2012, and set the poverty line for 2012 at BGN 236.

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