Charges Pressed against Former Head of Road Infrastructure Agency

The Anti-Corruption Unit of Sofia City Prosecutor's Office accused the former head of the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) Lazar Lazarov of mismanagement resulting in damages for RIA amounting to BGN 41,630,050, the prosecution announced on 21^st of June.

The investigation, which began on 17th of September, 2016, is about irregularities in the construction of Lot 1 from Maritsa Motorway "Orizovo - Dimitrovgrad". At the end of November, he resigned, and the reason he indicated was personal motives. In April this year, SANS and the prosecutor's office conducted an operation in the RIA following an alert from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) related to the first section of Maritsa Motorway.

According to the evidence gathered by the Prosecutor's Office in the period between 7th of August, 2014 and 30th of June, 2015, Lazar Lazarov, in his capacity of an official, deliberately did not take sufficient care of the management of the assets of the RIA in the process of construction of Lot 1 of Maritsa Motorway.

He concluded a public procurement contract with the company “Patishta Plovdiv AD” for almost 42,987,400 BGN, excluding VAT, for construction and assembly works on the motorway, although there had already been a contract with Chi-Em-Chi-Di-Ravenna - Italy for the construction of the motorway from August 2011. Lazarov had not checked whether there was a need for these works or how the estimates for the price of the public procurement had been made, the prosecution explains.

Lazar Lazarov has been imposed a restraint measure "Prescription".

The investigation is on-going.