There is no greater gift for a newly elected Minister than to find out that his subordinate structures have fat bank accounts. This way he will not have to cope with widening financial gaps but will jump-start the distribution of the available resources. While the crisis has been sweeping the country for four years, this situation is not at all impossible. At least with regard to the Minister of Environment and Water Iskra Mihailova. It should have been a great pleasure for her to learn that the subordinate to the ministry enterprise managing the activities to protect the environment (Environmental Protection Fund) was holding a deposit of 88 million levs.
It took just a few months of the Environment Minister to restore old practices of the time of the tripartite coalition and find the most proper use of the millions in cash. As chairman of the board of the Environmental Protection Fund Mihailova has decided to renew the funding of controversial projects for water and sewage networks in small and remote villages that were suspended in 2009 due to extremely inflated prices and many other irregularities. The question is about 287 projects (61 of which have signed contracts) totalling nearly 159 million levs. A serious turmoil was created around them after the previous Cabinet of the GERB party came into office and revealed o abuse in the enterprise for management environment-related activities. Then it became clear that a number of projects concentrated in the municipalities of Asenovgrad, Djebel Chernoochene, Ardino, Starossel, Kirkovo, Strumiani and Rouen, had unduly increased prices and performers were selected in violation of the law. It is also understood that some projects have received funding from different sources – once from the Environmental Protection Fund, then from the state budget or from other sources. These findings were given to the prosecution but the result was never seen .
Not all of those 287 projects will be able to rely on new financial aid. For the BANKER, CEO of the fund, Galina Simeonova, said that money will only be given for the completion of water supply projects that are more than 50% completed. Moreover, in order to receive the grants, local authorities will need to develop new applications and business proposals in accordance with applicable legal requirements and to sign new contracts.
It is still not clear which municipalities exactly will submit documents, but applicants will certainly prevail from Kardzhali region, that were most affected by the suspension of the money flow to them back in 2009. No wonder once again the water supply network in the village of Jinzifovo in which live only about 500 people, may become a top priority. For the second stage of the construction of the water supply network in the settlement were provided 898,000 levs. A check with the Public Procurement Agency shows that on 17 June 2009 the local government in Kardzhali opened proceedings to identify the contractor of an invitation to negotiate while a notification was sent only to the registered in the same city firm Garant-Invest. According to the electronic register Daksi, the majority shareholder of this company by 61% is Nikolay Nikolov, who is also a member of the board of directors. Nikolov, however, is not a random person. His partner in the firm GUSV – Ustra – Ardastroi is the notorious Alexander Elinov- Sadaq, who along with Errol Quasim, took from the state 77 million lev for the water mirror of Kardzhali. Adding that the contractor of the first stage of the water supply of Jinzifovo (worth 1.8 million levs) was Quassim’s firm Savarona things become even more intriguing. Moreover it was Savarona that was deprived of the agreed 414,000 levs for additional water supply for Jebel, but now this project may be resurrected.
A dozen of other sites around Asenovgrad Municipality are also waiting for the new millions from the Environmental Protection Fund. Their total value was nearly 8.8 million levs, the majority of which (6.2 million levs) is provided for the drafting of the project for consolidation of the two banks of the river Asenitsa that lie within the bounds of the city. The rest of the funds are for the construction of sewers in villages Zlatovruh, Muldava, Kozanovo and others.
One cannot ignore the two contracts for the reconstruction and replacement of water supply network in the village of Starosel for nearly 4.2 million levs. Contractor for both orders was chosen Isa 2000 Ltd., which became known because its owner Julian Indzhov was involved in the construction of Mr. Dogan’s huge mansion in Sofia’s fancy district Boyana. Contracts were signed with the company on 20 February and 2 July 2009, but stopped because the funding was suspended. Now it will be interesting to see whether the work will again be awarded to Isa 2000, whose director, incidentally, was appointed last week Deputy of Regional Development Minister Miroslav Maznev.
One should not miss the construction of household and rainwater drainage of Panicheri in Hisar municipality who were among the most expensive constructions in the water sector. For both water collectors and sewers in the village were allocated around 18.3 million levs, or 19,000 levs per capita. The project contractor was Condor 4 Ltd., owned by Yordan Kanev, former head of the Regional Labour Inspectorate in Pleven, leading the list of Simeon II National Movement in Lovech for the parliamentary elections in 2009. The decision to terminate the funding hardly bothered much Kanev as meanwhile he won a number of water projects under the Environment Operational Programme, whose total value was over 120 million levs. And now nothing will prevent him from re-directing the funds to the pipes in Panicheri.
The BANKER
