Bulgarian prosecutors indict former irrigation, agriculture fund officials
Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office said on March 31 that it had filed charges in two separate investigations against former executives at the national irrigation company and State Fund Agriculture, the payments agency that disburses EU farm subsidies.
As regards the investigation into Irrigation Systems, the prosecutor’s office said that former executive director Ivailo Parvanov was charged with signing unfavourable deals, namely 79 contracts for legal and accounting services. The prosecutors claimed that these contracts were unnecessary, since the company already had legal counsel and accountants on its payroll, and resulted in damages of about 597 000 leva (or about 305 000 euro).
Another former executive director of Irrigation Systems, Staiko Ganchev, was charged with mismanagement and signing unfavourable deals, which caused alleged damages of 346 300 leva.
In a separate investigation, Miroslav Nikolov, former head of the State Fund Agriculture, was indicted on charges of intentional mismanagement, with prosecutors alleging damages of about 20 000 leva from a contract for public relations consultancy services. The contract was unnecessary because the fund had its own public relations staff, the prosecutors said.
Furthermore, Nikolov authorized payment on the contract before any work had been carried out, the prosecutors said.
(Palace of Justice in Sofia. Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)