Damages at the extend of 4,135,158 evs in the Agriculture Fund established the Agency for State Financial Control. The expert’s report was prepared in October last year and was submitted to the current Director of the Fund Rumen Porozhanov and former Agriculture Minister Valeri Tsvetanov, as most of the violations had been committed during the time the latter led the Ministry. Tsvetanov had given explanations on the cases, but the financial inspectors concluded that they cannot accept his claims.
While it may sounds illogical to do an audit of activities carried out more than five years ago, its results can not be overlooked. Inspectors checked the legality of spending on subsidies granted under the schemes and measures of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union for the campaign of 2007 onwards. It turns out that rules for certification procedures were essentially violated and under them subsidies were distributed to 2,928 farmers who submitted their applications for the campaign in 2007. Regional paying agencies of the Fund accepted requests for direct payments and performed primary processing of documents. Then, according to the rules, the papers went to Direct Payments Department of the headquarters of the State Agriculture Fund and the subsidies were paid out. The mandatory checks on the correctness of the treated areas, however, were never made. The reason is that piles of documents and orders issued by the government at the time were at odds with both the European regulations and the orders from the ministry.
In their report the inspectors described the enormous correspondence between the paying agency and the ministry, which led them to the conclusion that there were repeated irregularities in payments.
This wholesale subsidy system is not new, and farmers have long been talking that checks are made pro forma and do not affect everyone.
The report of the financial agency shows that 2,701 farmers were paid subsidies to the total amount of 4,315,157.70 lev without checks on the spot. Experts say that payment is made in violation of national laws and European regulations governing the payment of grants under these schemes. No competent authority has decided whether there are grounds to carry out these payments or not. Payments were made on the basis of a letter of Minister Valeri Tsvetanov from 2008 on which the then CEO of the Agriculture Fund Atanas Georgiev set the resolution Urgent. This order of the Minister financial controllers defined as going beyond his powers.
The Cabinet should be reminded that yet in 2009, Bulgaria received the first notice from Brussels, it would be penalized by 20 million levs for irregularities in the payments
namely from 2007.
The BANKER
