Mayor of Cherven Bryag was arrested for 24 hours

The Mayor of Cherven Bryag Danail Valov and five officials are detained for 24 hours after an operation by the specialized prosecutor's office in the town on 20^th of March.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, he has been found to have breached his duties as a public servant and public tenderer under the "Hot Lunch" program, which is to the value of BGN 229,000.

In April 2017 the municipality of Cherven Bryag launched a call for public procurement tender for hot lunch in the town and Koinare, in which three companies participated. Instead of entering into a contract with the company that gave the lowest price, the mayor stopped the public procurement, and according to the prosecution, his goal was to favour two other companies. The former head of the municipality of Cherven Bryag, who filed the signal with the prosecutor’s office 7 months ago, says there are more violations.

Hristo Geshov, former PR of the municiplaity: The first violation is that companies close to the mayor, referring to the chief accountant of the mayor's family firm and municipal councilor supporting the local government, always win public procurements under the hot lunch program. There are a number of violations there, such as including people on the lists for lunches who were actually dead.

The deputy chief prosecutor announced that the mayor and five employees were detained for 24 hours.

Ivan Geshev, Deputy Chief Prosecutor: We are talking about lobbying in favour of certain companies to win public procurement contracts.