Dismissal Looms for Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister - Report

Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov's future seems uncertain in the aftermath of a slamming audit of his institution. Photo by BGNES

The dismissal of Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, is imminent, according to Members of the Parliament from the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB).

The MPs, speaking for the Bulgarian Dnevnik daily, say for a while now the GERB parliamentary group had been dissatisfied with Naydenov's work as it had been Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov.

According to them, there had been a number of requests to PM, Boyko Borisov, to replace the Minister, including from Djankov, but until now Borisov had been hesitant, most likely, over Naydenov's role in appeasing discontent among Bulgarian farmers.

The dismissal is now, however, on the table over the news that the National Audit Office (NAO) had refused to accept the Agriculture Ministry's accounting report. The audit revealed that data for the Ministry's dams, levees, irrigating pipes, and other hydrology equipment is entirely missing and the later have not been inventoried and accounted for as assets.

NAO President, Valeri Dimitrov, says there had been criminal activity involved since the database had been deleted on purpose.

Naydenov, who is on a visit to Brussels, announced he is ordering a full inventory.

The GERB MPs insist the Minister's performance, even before the audit, had been poor and he should have been replaced a long time ago.

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