After the Scandal With 'Road Transport Administration' Employees Demanding Bribes from Truck Drivers Delivering Equipment for a Concert by British Singer Robbie Williams: Deputy PM Karadzhov Dismissed the Director of the Traffic Control Agency

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadzhov met today, October 1 with the managment of the Executive Agency "Road Transport Administration".

• The Two 'Road Transport Administration' Employees Who Took Bribes from Robbie Williams' Crew Remanded in Custody

"We should all apologise to the foreign drivers who have been blackmailed in a very ugly way by inspectors of the Road Transport Administration. They came to Bulgaria to do their job but were confronted with corruption and racketeering. This is unacceptable. We must also apologise to Bulgarian citizens, because the name of Bulgaria has been tainted by this scandal,” Karadzhov said.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced that, following the case involving two detained inspectors, four officials from the Agency will be dismissed – the Director of the General Directorate "Automobile Inspection", the Head of the Regional Department of the Automobile Administration in Sofia, and two members of the internal commission under the Anti-Corruption Act who failed to fulfil their duties to prevent such abuses.

“Responsibility does not lie solely with the inspectors, but also with their superiors, who are obliged to monitor and organise the agency’s oversight activities,” Karadzhov stressed.

He also unveiled new measures for the Road Transport Administration. All road inspectors will be equipped with body cameras to guarantee transparency, and mandatory staff rotation will be introduced to break local dependencies and illicit schemes.

“We have invited the international anti-corruption organisation Transparency International to conduct an independent external audit of the Agency, during which they will also review all corruption reports submitted this year, in order to establish clearly whether and where the system has been compromised. My duty is to protect Bulgarian citizens and honest employees. Upright inspectors will be supported, while corrupt ones will be exposed and punished. I am sending a clear message: no cover-ups, no compromises, no exceptions,” Karadzhov concluded.