Another Official Dismissed in Bulgaria's Road Transport Agency Corruption Scandal

Former chairperson of the Road Transport Inspection executive agency (DAI) Tsvetelin Tsvetanov. Photo: BGNES

Bulgarian Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski has ordered the interim chairperson of the Road Transport Inspection executive agency (DAI) Krasimir Kalaydzhiev to dismiss the director of the agency's general directorate Road Transport Inspection Vladimir Kolev.

This development comes after the arrest of the chairperson of DAI Tsvetelin Tsvetanov and thirteen other officials on suspicions of conducting illegal practices when issuing certificates to road transport companies and driving licences.

Kolev has been dismissed for not exercising enough control over his subordinates – the heads of the regional departments of DAI.

This led to gaps in the work of the agency and allowed for the emergence of unlawful practices.

Kolev assumed responsibility for the weaknesses in the functioning of DAI, he said in an interview for Darik radio.

According to him, in order to tackle corruption in the agency, it is necessary to ease the administrative functions of inspectors and to increase their salaries.

Kolev has worked in DAI since 2012 and has served as director of the general directorate in the past two years.

He noted that during his tenure he did not have any suspicions that his officials were involved in corruption practices.

In his words, DAI officials are subject to high corruption risk, which combined with the low salaries leads to the recurrent problems in the agency.

One of the parties constituting the junior coalition partner, the Reformist Bloc (RB), demanded the resignation of Moskovski on Monday.

According to RB, the transport minister was aware of the practices at the agency but did not take any measures to eradicate them.

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