The rulers are continuing to use nepotistic criteria when selecting managing staff in the energy sector. Following the appointment of Valentin Nikolov, head of NPP Kozloduy, last week the Minister of Economy and Energy Delian Dobrev dismissed the Executive Director of the Agency for Sustainable Energy Nikola Kolev. His place is now occupied by Kiril Georgiev, councilor in the Municipal Council of Sofia. The motive for the change is the inefficiency of the agency. Its work is to be focused on energy efficiency, which is a priority for the government, so the pace should be improved, said in a press release Minister Dobrev.
The new Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Development Agency is the head of a political party GERB in its branch in the Sofia district of Krasna Polyana. Mr. Georgiev entered the local parliament in Sofia after the local election in 2011.
From his CV it is clear that so far he has had nothing to do with energy efficiency – he graduated from the University of National World Economy – Sofia in 1996 specializing in Economics and Management of Territorial Systems and in 2011 added Public Administration to its qualifications. He has a certificate in Human Resources Management from Erasmus Centre for Sustainable Development and Management at Rotterdam, Netherlands, as well AS A specialization in political management in Bulgarian School of Politics Dimitar Panitza.
How much managerial experience has accumulated Mr. Georgiev is also a very controversial question. According to the Commercial Register in his career up to now, he has been a manager (together with Eleonora Georgieva) of TSG Comfort LTD – a company involved in a vast range of business activities. Since late 2009, however the company has been in liquidation.
Another company in which he appears to have worked according to the official records is Klein Trucks – Bulgaria LTD., where we was a manager since mid-2005. Information available online shows that this is a branch of one of the biggest enterprises in the field of used trucks, offering trucks, semi trailers, commercial vehicles and construction equipment. Klein Trucks – Bulgaria LTD – however, was liquidated in the end of 2009.
At least at first glance, the responsibilities of the new position for Mr. Georgiev do not look rather extensive. Agency for Sustainable Energy Development is the successor of the Agency for Energy Efficiency and has the status of an executive agency at the Ministry of Economy and Energy. In practice, it is a very small body employing only 70 people (including technical staff).
The significance of the structure, however, in its role as coordinator of a series of activities related to energy efficiency is huge – it participates in the development and updating of national action plans on energy efficiency and produces annual reports on their implementation. I.e. it is the crucial instance and decision maker (especially its boss) as to where the state money in energy efficiency will be invested in. Producers of green energy will depend on the decision of this structure to prove to the electricity distributors NEC, CEZ, E.ON and EVN that they have produced truly clean energy, which is bought at preferential prices set by the energy regulator.
