Начало
назад
Political clashes and reactions after OLAF’s investigation into the public procurement of cars for the Bulgarian police
Political clashes on February 3 following OLAF's investigation into the public procurement of cars for the Bulgarian police. In Parliament, ruling GERB party issued a declaration and asked President Rumen Radev to withdraw his candidacy for a second term in office.
Meanwhile, former Minister of the Interior, Valentin Radev (from May 2017 to September 2018), said he had not been in a position to refuse to sign the contract under investigation.
OLAF has confirmed that their investigation is into the reasons why the public procurement has chosen SUVs vehicles rather than all-terrain ones. It became clear that the conditions changed after the signing of the grant agreement by Brussels and before the announcement of the public procurement.
OLAF investigators had a document that answered the question of who proposed and who approved the change to the conditions for the type of car. The evaluation criteria were also changed, giving a higher weight to the price and a lower weight to the technical parameters of the cars, but it should have been the other way around.
There is another interesting fact - the manufacturer of the cars in question filed for bankruptcy in court on February 24, 2017. However, on April 20, 2017, a supplier of its cars was selected in the public procurement announced by the Ministry of Interior. Namey for this reason OLAF concludes that the purchased cars were manufactured in 2013-2014 and were kept in stock until delivery.
The report of OLAF's investigation has been sent to the European Commission. It describes the breaches. According to the funding conditions, the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior was supposed to buy all-terrain off-road vehicles, but bought others.
"OLAF's investigation conducted between July 2018 and December 2020 proved that the ministry used EU funds to purchase 219 SUVs, most of which were made in 2013 and 2014 and had been in stock for several years. Not all of these cars can be used to guard borders in rugged terrain, without passable roads, as required. All this means that the money - nearly 6 million euros - has not been spent for the intended purpose and must be returned," the Director-General of OLAF said.
According to BNT sources, during the investigation in Bulgaria, OLAF experts found a document that shows who proposed and who allowed the terms of the contract to be changed. Thus, SUV vehicles were purchased instead of all-terrain ones. In addition, in the evaluation of the bids, the price offer should have weighed 40% and the weight of the quality parameters should have been 60%. With the document in question, it was proposed that in the ranking of the winner the price should have 60% weight and the qualities of the cars – 40%.
Today, in the social media network, former Minister of Interior, Valentin Radev, explained that in February 2018 he could not stop the procurement because it had already passed judicial control. Valentin Radev also commented that when he took office, the public procurement had already ended and the supplier had been selected. He described the political intrigues surrounding the public procurement as powerlessness of their creator.
The scandal spread to Parliament. From the rostrum, ruling GERB accused Rumen Radev of trying to raise an umbrella over his adviser for the OLAF investigation. They pointed out that the investigation of the European Anti-Fraud Office is due to the changed parameters of the public procurement for the supply of cars for the Ministry of Interior, which started during the term of the caretaker government appointed by President Rumen Radev.
"Mr. President, haven't the failures of your team become too many? As they say – like master, like man. Mr.Radev, you are a shame and disgrace for our country, as people with more experience in politics we urge you to humble yourself, to recognise your failures and most honestly to withdraw your bid for a second term in office as President", said Spas Garnevski of GERB.
The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) countered:
"There will be elections soon and people will decide whether they want politicians like Rumen Radev or politicians like Spas Garnevski." said Krum Zarkov of BSP.
Later, the BSP leader, Kornelia Ninova, refused to comment on the issue related to the OLAF investigation on the grounds that it was a legal issue. She called for the law to rule on this issue.
Obviously, the first ruling will be made by the Prosecutor's office when it becomes clear whether, to whom and what charges will be brought. For now, it is clear that all public procurement documents have already been handed over to investigators. For now, the state public Prosecutor’s office does not provide details, saying that the work on the investigation is at an early stage.
Чуйте последните новини, където и да сте!
Последвайте ни във Facebook и
Instagram
Следете и канала на БНТ в YouTube
Вече може да ни гледате и в TikTok
Намерете ни в Google News
