Bulgaria Justice Minister sacks Registry Agency chief
Bulgaria’s Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov sacked the head of the Registry Agency Ventsislav Spiridonov effective immediately, the ministry said in a statement on March 27.
Spiridonov’s firing was the result of an audit ordered by the Cabinet last month, which found numerous breaches of regulations at the agency, which is the state body that records all corporate filings and ownership changes in the Commercial Register.
The audit was carried out over a period of six weeks and found that, on Spiridonov’s watch, changes in corporate records were routinely carried out outside business hours (including at night) and the agency would sometimes refuse to record corporate filings, complying only when ordered by courts.
The inspectors also found numerous breaches of public procurement rules, recommending that the agency officials that allowed for such systematic breaches of regulations face disciplinary charges, the Justice Ministry said.
Spiridonov will be replaced by Elena Markova, who previously served as deputy director of the agency. Spiridonov is the latest senior official put in place by the now-departed Plamen Oresharski administration – he was appointed in the summer of 2013 by then-justice minister Zinaida Zlatanova – to be ousted by the current government since it took office in late November 2014.
(Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers building. Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
