The state may be shaken by the crisis, but policymakers seem they don’t care. They are spending as much as they want and nobody holds them responsible. Budget voted in Parliament is obviously only to stay on paper and almost all institutions, led by the Council of Ministers generate bigger expenses then they are allowed to. For maternal and child allowances they may not have enough money, but the administration has plenty to spend. Even if they don’t, the Law on the State Budget allows the Finance Minister or the cabinet to make unlimited adjustments to the state budget as approved by lawmakers.
The government so far have felt that they have to spend more than 101.2 million levs as compared to only 67 million levs voted by parliament. In other words, have quietly increased sum spent by 50 percent. And this year there is no general election. Who knows what will happen in 2013 …
According to the report of the implementation of the state budget, Bulgaria’s supreme administration spent 82.5 million levs by the end of September. This makes an average of 9.2 million levs per month and, if the trend continues until the New Year, the total annual spending will reach 110 million levs. The only problem is that in recent weeks the Government has raised even more the speed of allocating money to its own needs. The System for Electronic Budget Payments showed that the Council of Ministers in October paid 11,570,230, or an average of 500 thousand levs per working day of the month. Traditional the activity of our rulers increases especially in November and December, so one can safely expect more impressive results by the year’s end.
But where does all this money go to? Half a million a day is a very high sum even for an army of 3,133 employees. As a matter of fact a total of 44.78 million levs is provided only for the salaries of these officials. The amount is by 25.2 million lev higher than what was approved in the state budget and represents 45% of all the money available to the Council of Ministers. Apart from that a sum of 483,320 levs has been envisaged for additional payments to state administration employees, but on September 30 the paid money on this item exceeded 1.23 million levs. That’s what an amendment to the amendment to the budget is.
Maintenance of the Council of Ministers itself originally was to cost 14 million lev, and later swelled to the amount of 18.2 million. But this is not the final figure as the first nine months of the year already swallowed 16.7 million levs.
What exactly is behind these payments is not entirely clear, but certainly to them one needs to attach expenses for plane tickets, computers, cleaning and many more. For example, flights cost 600 thousand levs, and the intermediary company to provide them is Elite Travel International. The company is owned by Anelia and Margarita Bachiyski and has served the government before receiving for the same activity 800,000 in 2010.
No less interesting is the contract with the Maestro Park company for the delivery and arrangement of flowers, plants, bouquets, wreaths, baskets as well as maintenance of ornamental plants and green spaces in the building of the Council of Ministers and the Boyana residence. The contract was signed on April 17, but it did not specify the exact amount to be paid to the company.
What is known is that the annual maintenance of the three black-and-white copiers Konica is worth 200,000 without VAT. Insurance costs went to 110,000 levs. Almost all the money went to Lev Ins.
Significant were the costs for new computers to state employees – a total of 358,000 levs were spent on that. The sum was divided between three companies – Lirex BG, Intelinet Bulgaria and Stemo. Separately Spectrum Net got 123,300 levs for providing Internet connection.
The biggest difference, however Ministers have incurred for the so-called ‘administered spending paragraphs’. For them, the budget of the institution was allowed to spend 4.4 million levs, but after additional amendments the money increased to 32.1 million levs. The explanation is that a sum of 20 million lev has been allocated for the payment of licenses to Microsoft. They have already been spent and it will be nor surprise is by the end of the year the Cabinet will need more on that. More interesting is that the budget never envisaged such expenses and the rulers did not know that they would have to make them. Contracts for these licenses date back to the time of Minister Nikolay Vassilev and the new government contracts for software were signed two weeks ago.
The BANKER
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