Bulgaria is threatened by a record financial correction by the European Commission under the Rural Development Program. This is the period 2007-2013.
The exact amount is expected to become clear next week, when a delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the State Fund "Agriculture" is to travel to Brussels, BNT reported.
The expected fine is hundreds of millions of euros for the money for the so-called "rural tourism" because of established
violations and the purchase of luxury vehicles, ATVs, motorcycles and even vessels, which instead of for tourism,
were used for personal purposes by the beneficiaries, reports the newspaper "Sega".
According to the publication, a sanction may be imposed for
about 250 million euros. The State Agriculture Fund acknowledged that there is a risk, but only for 33m euros.
There is no clarity, because an audit is currently underway.
Opposition lawmakers even say the sanctions could reach 500m euros.
On Wednesday, a specialization of SANS started in the Fund. There is no official information on what exactly is being checked. Yesterday, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov only pointed out that "the best experts from SANS and the prosecutor's office are working on the case. The fight against corruption is being carried out at the highest levels, where the money is."
The correction that Brussels will impose on the State Fund "Agriculture" will be covered at the expense of the state budget, reminds BGNES.
Imposing a financial correction of 250m euros would be an absolute record if it happened.
So far, two flat corrections have been imposed on Bulgaria
- under the program "Environment" and under the program "Development of the regions". The adjustment under OPE amounted to BGN 152.9 million and amounted to 9.5% of 239 contracts audited. Under OPRD, a flat correction of nearly BGN 133 million was imposed. Both penalties were at the expense of the budget, because it is assumed that the violations are of a systemic nature and the beneficiaries should not be to blame. What is special is that the treasury did not lose financial resources from the EU, as the money provided for the problematic projects was redirected to other projects.
The Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov categorically denied the information.
In parliament, he only commented: "No, no, this is speculation, firmly."