Construction Ministry wants to spend BGN2.221 billion in 2012 in sixteen programmes. More than half of the sum – BGN1.331 billion, or by BGN50 million more than in the current year, will go to highways and roads. They will be used to build and expropriated land lots for the Struma, Thrakia, Hemus and Maritsa as well as for the first-class road Vidin – Montana, Mezdra – Botevgrad, etc. The overall bill includes also money to secure the national road network, and ongoing maintenance and repair works.
However, there are very real obstacles that may impede the implementation of these priority government undertakings in the road sector. The first of these is the annual expenditure ceilings, which the Ministry of Finance sets for state investment loans. Apart from the fact that their size is limited so as not to overburden the budget, they often do not coincide with the parameters and terms of financial contracts for the projects co-financed with them. That is why last week the government had to change en passant the amount of absorption of government’s foreign investment loans for 2011 as implemented by the regional development ministry, the ceiling being raised from BGN126.935 million to BGN137.336 million.
The other
very big problem
is the passing of application forms and providing money for projects applying for funding with funds from the European Union. It suffices to say that the construction of Trakia highway is currently paid entirely by the budget and Sofia has still not received a single euro from Brussels for it. The same situation is observable with Struma and Maritsa projects, as well as part of the railway projects under the Transport programme. If one adds the disturbing signals from the European Commission that Bulgaria has too many projects that cannot be implemented with the money provided for transport by the end of 2013 it is likely that the Ministry has calculated its 2012 budget rather wrongly.
The report to the budget of the Construction Ministry clearly follows that for the Strategic Infrastructure Projects National Company, established during the period in office of Rosen Plevneliev, recently elected for President, will get BGN1.2 million, or by 300 thousand less than requested. High hopes lie on this structure whish is expected to focus on key highways in the country, attracting high quality experts fees. Whether the limited funding will allow this really to happen?
Fight against illegal construction
seems to be in stagnation, too. Illegally constructed units may remain in place, simply because National Construction Control Directorate will not have money to pay the companies that it hired to pull the constructions down. In 2006 the sum for the directorate’s functioning was BGN1.855 million, while a year later it was increased to BGN1.918 million and then gradually decreased to reach in the last two years only BGN889.7 thousand. Funds provided in 2011 were reduced by 55% compared to 2010. This amount serves as the basis for calculating the draft budget for 2012 and it is extremely insufficient to cover basic expenses, which affects directly and negatively the activities of the directorate.
