The Institute for Road Safety alerted the Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev about alleged violations in the actions and inactions of the Regional Minister Ivan Shishkov. According to their assessment, the damage that Shishkov can cause to the state budget is millions.
Among the signals are the contracts for winter maintenance, preventive and ongoing maintenance, as well as repair and restoration works of the national roads.
“Minister Shishkov did not approve the financial framework and the name list of the objects built by API in 2022, thereby indirectly allowing indiscriminate and subjective payment by the Board of API. We believe that due to inaction and tacit approval of illegal construction by of Minister Shishkov in 2022 under these contracts, it was carried out. By circumventing the Law on Public Procurement and in violation of the Law on the State Budget, with the consent of Minister Shishkov, over 100 illegal objects commissioned by the government of Borisov were completed in the form of preventive repairs according to annexes No. 3 and No. 4 of the signed additional agreements under these contracts during the transitional caretaker government,” the alert reads.
The institute lists more signals of alleged irregularities:
“Minister Shishkov assigned the Management Board of API to approve the assignments for the implementation of 11 new sites, including the repair of the bridge facility over the Yantra River near the town of Polski Trumbesh in the form of ongoing repairs. He did not exercise control over the management of API and allowed the basic repairs carried out in the form of preventive ones will be paid out to certain companies on an optional basis”, the signal also reads
“Minister Shishkov has authorized the payment of the basic repair of municipal roads located on the territory of OPU-Blagoevgrad, OPU-Pazardzhik and OPU-Pernik, awarded through these contracts with agreements between the API and the relevant municipality on the basis of Art. 59-Art. 61 from the Law on Local Self-Government and Local Administration, which bypasses the Law on Public Procurement and these agreements are of a donor nature. This may damage the state budget by about BGN 70 million for these repairs,” the institute also states.
