/ world today news/ After claiming for a month that there were no violations in the speed scheme for hiring the unemployed with European money, yesterday Social Minister Ivaylo Kalfin canceled the ranking.
Against the scheme under the operational program “Development of human resources” there are a number of signals from companies, including in OLAF and its Bulgarian equivalent – the directorate in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which deals with abuses of European funds – AFKOS, reports in “Sega”. The employers point to striking violations in the ranking and the application procedure, which took place in a record short time – two working days. All approved firms submitted applications within the first 19 minutes of the scheme opening.
“From the very beginning, I have no confidence that we are putting the companies on equal terms,” Kalfin explained yesterday again without admitting any violations. He clarified that he himself ordered an inspection of the governing body and AFCOS, but this was a standard procedure due to the many reports.
At the end of March, the Employment Agency distributed BGN 8.1 million for employment of the unemployed, and in 2-3 days managed to rank over 3,720 companies. Then it was realized that applications were viewed on a first-come, first-served basis and once the resource was reached, the application was cut off. This takes place as early as March 28, although the deadline was initially announced as April 1. “Sega” newspaper found striking problems in the application – some requests are entered in 1-2 seconds in the same desk, although a considerable volume of documentation is required to be reviewed. Some businesses are registered in the system on Saturdays.
Yesterday, the Social Affairs Minister said that the employees worked after hours, but could not offer an explanation for Saturday. According to him, 300 employees in 107 labor offices accepted applications and therefore it is possible to have registrations in 2 seconds. It is not clear how it was decided in which cities one employee would work and in which – ten, as was apparently the case in Karnobat, where ten companies were registered in seconds. Kalfin also explained that the request is registered when the employee enters the system, and not when all documents are processed. This raises the question of why there is only one employment office in the country, from which the first company is registered at exactly 9:30 a.m., and in some offices, such as those in large cities, there is not a single application in the first hour and a half.
The minister announced that they will launch the scheme again after St. George’s Day, but with a much larger resource – from BGN 30 million. The amount will be distributed among regions and it will be clear how much money each region has. The unemployment rate will be important for their distribution. There will already be criteria for companies – they will receive an advantage if they provide longer employment, if they offer a salary higher than the minimum insurance threshold and according to the type of jobs. Applications will be made until the resource is exhausted, but according to the minister, the scheme will be open for about a week. There will also be a limit – each company will be able to hire up to six employees. When asked why these criteria were not set the first time, Kalfin explained that due to the huge interest of the companies now “we can afford to be more selective”.
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