Bulgaria's Environment Minister Sacks 23 Senior Officials

Bulgarian Environment Minister Iskra Mihaylova has dismissed a total of 23 senior officials, including the 16 directors of regional inspectorates, the directors of the three National Parks Rila, Pirin and Central Balkan, and the heads of the four basin directorates (Danube River Basin Directorate, Black Sea Basin Directorate, East Aegean Sea River Basin Directorate, West Aegean Sea River Basin Directorate).

The dismissals were triggered by the inefficient implementation of projects under the "Environment" Operational Program, which resulted in financial corrections and delays in the preparation of plans for the management of the national parks and the river basin directorates, according to reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

Environment Minister Iskra Mihaylova made clear late on Thursday that she had received multiple tip-offs from citizens and NGOs about problems in these bodies in two months.

"This means that the managing authority of the operational program found such irregularities in the organization of public procurement procedures, and that it penalizes this structure just as it sometimes penalizes municipalities. As you well know, they have been penalized and are paying financial corrections," she stated, as cited by the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

"I believe that this is absolutely inadmissible and this is a vicious circle - we fund projects under the Environment OP and after that we reimburse the sums under these projects from the national budget," she added.