Bulgaria’s anti-corruption body to investigate allegations against Finance Minister
Bulgaria’s Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov said on November 23 that he ordered the country’s anti-corruption body to investigate allegations, made in media reports earlier this week, that Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov was in conflict of interest.
Goranov, it was claimed, was living in a large apartment in a “luxury residential building” that was made available to him free of charge by a “Bulgarian businessman.”
The Finance Minister denied any wrongdoing said that he was not worried by the investigation. “The probe is the most natural occurrence, given that there are any suspicions of irregularities,” he said, as quoted by Bulgarian National Television.
“The apartment was made available to me in 2012 by a close relative, the godfather to my two children and myself. I will stop at that, please allow me to maintain some privacy,” Goranov was quoted as saying.
Goranov said that he declared the property in his declaration of assets and saw no conflict of interest. He said that he would make available any information requested by the anti-corruption and asset forfeiture commission as part of its investigation.
(Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov photo: minfin.bg)
