Bulgarian Cabinet to Allocate Further BGN 3.5 M to Interior Ministry

The Bulgarian government has decided to allocate more than BGN 3.5 M to the Interior Ministry.

This was announced by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Plovdiv, daily Sega reports.

The resources will be distributed between the 32 structures of the ministry across the country.

Borisov clarified that BGN 700 000 are foreseen for the repair of the ministry's vehicles, while another BGN 720 000 will be allocated for the purchase of winter tyres.

Resources will be also allocated for the purchase of fuel, the repairs of reception offices for citizens as well as renewal of printers and computers in almost all directorates of the ministry across the country.

More than 200 new minibuses and vehicles will be purchased for the transporation of refugees, while BGN 500 000 will be allocated to the special police forces.

It is not clear whether these allocations will satisfy the demands of police officers, who have been protesting for four consecutive days over the planned cuts to the ministry's budget, which will affect their remuneration and social benefits.

Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said that the reason for the planned cuts to the social benefits was the need for reform in the security sector, while the concrete cause was the budget.

In an interview for the Bulgarian National Television on Friday, Goranov added that it is always challenging to make difficult reforms.

According to him, it was more important why the reforms were taking place rather than the way in which these were carried out.

Goranov noted that the defence and security sectors have been experiencing structural problems for a long time as the necessary reforms had been delayed to some extent and had not taken place earlier.

This has resulted in allocating the main part of the budget to the salaries of people serving in the two sectors, which was not the fault of the officials themselves.

In his words, the defence and security budgets are structured in such ways that deprive investments to be made in the labour conditions, equipment and armament.

The finance minister noted that the proposed cuts did not even constitute a genuine reform, but showed that the budgets of the two sectors were unbalanced.

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