The caretaker government has decided to liquidate the state-owned company "Store for the People", originally established by the government of Rosen Zhelyazkov on the initiative of Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Delyan Peevski.
Cabinet Approves the Establishment of a "Store for the People"
At the start of today’s Cabinet meeting, caretaker Prime Minister, Andrey Gyurov, reportedly questioned whether there was a scheme involving “empty shelves and full pockets” and sought clarification from the caretaker Minister of Agriculture.
Later, Ivan Hristanov told media that the company would be placed into liquidation.
Gyurov said he had received information from the agriculture ministry about what he described as significant losses at "Store for the People", which he suggested had been created as a political alibi.
He claimed that reports indicated empty shelves, negative balances and high executive salaries, and questioned why senior managers had allegedly “disappeared” following the latest developments.
Andrey Gyurov, caretaker Prime Minister, said reports indicate that the shelves in the state-owned “Store for the People” stores are empty, the accounts are in the red, and executives have been paying themselves salaries worth thousands of euros.
He also questioned why senior managers had allegedly “disappeared” earlier in the day.
“This increasingly looks like a state-funded experiment for siphoning off money,” Gyurov said.
“We have already seen ‘Magnitsky-style’ bancrupsies in Bulgaria. We want to know whether we are facing another such case, because it must be clear that Bulgarian citizens do not pay taxes to finance one man’s shops,” he added.
This is not social policy, according to Gyurov, but another showcase for the failure of a model brought down by civil protests. Later, the caretaker agriculture minister explained that the company had realised less than a third of its budgeted revenue in the first quarter.
“There was no way we could convince people that the state can sell beans and canned meat, while at the same time the stain on the initiative is that its ideological architect is a man who flew 33 times to Dubai by private plane last year,” Hristanov said.
“Despite everything, we gave "Store for the People" a chance to prove itself. We gave it the opportunity to report its first three months. The results are more than tragic,” he added.
Ivan Hristanov said that the only “sustainable” thing found in the company’s financial reports was the salaries, noting that several individuals had received a total of 170,000 Bulgarian levs over the last three months.
“Today I am ordering the closure of the company in a way that reduces the losses for the people because of the "Store for the People" initiative,” Hristanov stated.
In a later official position, the company described the decision as rushed.
However, a local inspection by journalists in Plovdiv found that public interest in the chain of shops there had not declined.
Lazar Filchev, chairman of a regional cooperative union in Plovdiv, said sales were actually increasing.
“My colleagues even told me today—we had a union meeting—that there is quite a serious increase in outlets and in the sales of seasonal goods such as drinks, vegetables and fruits,” he said.
Meanwhile, early this morning the management of “Store for the People” announced that it was resigning.
According to the board, the reason was a “prolonged lack of dialogue” with the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as a lack of clear managerial direction and support.
The members of the board said they had invested significant personal time and resources, and initially worked for remuneration of around 400 euros.
Ivan Hristanov described the resignation as puzzling, given that the cabinet’s decision to shut down the company had reportedly been discussed only within a very limited circle.
Lazar Filchev, chairman of a regional cooperative union in Plovdiv, claimed there may have been advance leaks of information regarding the decision.
“We will investigate why there was advance information in this regard,” he said.
He also alleged that an “early campaign” and “black PR” against him was underway, which he said was happening because, in his words, they were defending “the interests of Bulgaria with a capital ‘B’.”
A journalistic check in Plovdiv found that the chain’s operations there are continuing for now.
The state had allocated 10 million leva for “Store for the People”. According to the latest information, 2 million leva have been spent, while the remaining 8 million are expected to be returned to the state budget.
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