E-vignette saga: Head of Bulgaria’s Road Infrastructure Agency resigns at request of Prime Minister
The head of the board of Bulgaria’s Road Infrastructure Agency, Svetoslav Glosov, submitted his resignation on January 9 at the request of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, the government information service said.
The statement said that Borissov had called the agency’s management and the leadership of the Regional Development and Public Works Ministry to a meeting for them to report on the topic of the “e-vignette” electronic road tax system and the toll system.
After the discussion, Borissov asked for Glosov’s resignation, who submitted it to Regional Development and Public Works Minister Petya Avramova, the statement said.
Glosov had held the post since June 26 2018.
On January 5, Borissov ordered the dismissal of two top officials at the Road Infrastructure Agency and an adviser to the regional development minister because of the poor organisation of the introduction of the electronic road tax “vignette” system.
At the time, Glosov reacted to the dismissals by saying that the decision was Borissov’s and had not been agreed with him, and said that he did not think there should be any further resignation at that stage.
The introduction of the “e-vignette” electronic road tax system in Bulgaria as of January 1 2019 has been beset with problems, including a shortage of self-service terminals and other sales points at the country’s borders and on major road routes.
On January 3, the conversion of hard-copy vignettes to electronic ones was suspended because of attempts to defraud the online system.
Since then, the agency has been making announcements about the expansion of sales points of e-vignettes, including at Bulgaria’s border checkpoints.
