SOFIA PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE SEEKS SUSPENSION OF PLOVDIV’S MAYOR IVAN TOTEV FROM OFFICE

Sofia City Prosecutor's Office submitted a request to suspend Ivan Totev, the Mayor of Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv from office, the spokesperson of the Chief Prosecutor Roumyana Arnaudova, said on 13th of January. Plovdiv Regional Court will consider the request of the prosecutor’s office in an open session.

The prosecutor’s office say the request was submitted because they believed there was sufficient evidence that the mayor committed malfeasance and in view of its official capacity, there was a real risk to influence the full and comprehensive investigation on the pre-trial proceedings if he continued to perform this functions, Roumyana Arnaudova said.

She said that 90% of the witness in the investigation were in hierarchical subordination to the mayor and he, in his capacity of employer to those officials, might hamper the investigation.

On 10th of January, Sofia Prosecutor’s Office pressed charges against the Mayor of Plovdiv, Ivan Totev, over malfeasance in office which allegedly resulted in damages to the municipality to the amount of 1 million BGN.

According to the prosecution, in 2014, in his capacity of an official holding a responsible position and as public contracting authority, Ivan Totev, violated his official duties in relation to a procurement for the construction of a zoo park in Plovdiv. Allegedly, he did not meet the requirements of the existing legislation on public procurement and directly negotiated with the contractor “Zapryanovi 03 ltd”.

Moreover, this procedure was carried out without an approved conceptual development project at the time of its opening and had not been approved in terms of quantity. There had not been a comprehensive report to assess the compliance of the investment project with the existing requirements of the construction and a permit to build had not been issued. These legal requirements were not met at the time of concluding of the contract for the construction of the zoo park - Plovdiv with the contractor - "Zapryanov 03" LTD. According to the Prosecutor’s office, Ivan Totev did that in order to obtain benefit for the contractor to the amount of 1 million BGN, which is the size of the damage to the municipality.

The pre-trial proceeding was initiated on 3rd of November 2016, by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Plovdiv. By decree of the Chief Prosecutor dated 15th of November.2016, it was allowed the investigation to be conducted outside the area of the court competent to hear the case and it was ordered that Sofia Prosecutor’s office could provide guidance and supervision over the pre-trial proceedings.

14 witnesses have been interviewed so far. All relevant documents have been requested from the municipality in Plovdiv. Ivan Totev has been imposed a bail of 20,000 BGN.

According to Roumyana Arnaudova, today it became clear that Totev initially asked for a change to that measure, subsequently withdrew his request, but the next day again filed such a request, thus submitting it to Sofia City Court for the second time.

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