Road Agency Finances ‘Extremely Worrying’, Minister Orders Probe into Possible Irregularities

Caretaker Regional Development Minister, Nikolay Naydenov, has ordered an analysis of the financial condition of the Road Infrastructure Agency, warning that the findings so far are “extremely worrying” and raise suspicions of irregularities. He made the statement following a caretaker cabinet meeting on March 25.

Naydenov explained that the internal inspectorates had carried out inspections on public procurement and contracts, which had found violations in several areas. He cited as an example a public procurement for safety barriers, worth more than €590 million over five years. An inspectorate report has already identified numerous irregularities and is due to be forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior.

Serious issues have also been identified in contracts for routine road maintenance and repairs. Initially valued at around €2.26 billion over four years, nearly the entire budget had been allocated and spent within just a year and a half as of 19 February this year.

Naydenov added that a significant share of the funds had been directed towards so-called “preventive maintenance”, which in practice masked major repair works — a practice he described as “flawed” and said would be curtailed.