President’s office: We insist on full clarification of the dubious delivery of cars to the Ministry of Interior

In response to questions from the media on February 2, the press office of the Bulgarian head of state disseminated the following position:

"The presidential institution insists on a full clarification not only of this dubious supply of cars for the Interior Ministry by Boyko Borissov's government, but also on checking the billions of BGN spent in the recent years, including in cases where public procurements were not conducted at all.

The suggestion made periodically that as Minister of the Interior in 2017 Plamen Uzunov signed a contract for the supply of 290 all-terrain vehicles for the Ministry of Interior will not make it true. This media "sensation" was offered to the attention of the public in the spring of 2019 and remains just as contrary to the truth to this day.

The procedure for purchasing the cars in question from the Ministry of Interior was launched in the autumn of 2016 by the second government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and ended with the signing of a contract 10 months after the end of the term of Plamen Uzunov as caretaker Minister of Interior.

GERB: OLAF's investigation is for a change in the criteria for delivery of cars to the Ministry of Interior

The contract in question was not only signed during the third cabinet of Boyko Borissov on February 22, 2018, almost 10 months after the end of the term of the caretaker government, but also the specified deadline for implementation of the same contract is September 2017. Because of this obvious contradiction in early February 2018, the European Commission has informed the Ministry of Interior that the signing of the contract in question may be followed by a financial sanction for the country. The Ministry of Interior ignored the recommendation of the EC and signed the contract on February 22, 2018," the statement says.