Bulgaria’s PM ordered a probe into all guest houses financed with EU funds

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, ordered the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor's Office to start checks into all guest houses in the country financed with EU funds. So far, the State Fund Agriculture has checked 110 guest houses and more than BGN 10 million has been been claimed for recovery.

The PM ordered the check to include all 746 guest houses which were built with European Union funds in the period 2007 -2013.

The Minister of Agriculture, Rumen Porozhanov, and interior Minister, Mladen Marinov, said on 30^th of April that 110 such houses were already checked and 32 would have to pay back BGN 10 million, because the houses were not used for their intended purpose.

Rumen Porozhanov, Minister of Agriculture: According to information from a week ago, more than 110 guest houses have been checked by the technical Inspectorate of the Fund "Agriculture". BGN 10 million have been claimed for paying back. For 32 of them, we seek full refund. For the rest we demanded partial recovery of the funds or financial adjustment.

Mladen Marinov, Minister of the Interior: Inspections on specific sites are underway. The check will include all guest houses. Relevant checks are carried out in municipalities, to see if tourist taxes have been paid, whether the visiting tourists were registered in the relevant district offices, as required.

In addition to the owners of the guest houses, the builders and contractors of the projects in question will also be inspected.