The cleaning of politically appointed positions in Bulgaria’s energy sector (those made by GERB party) continued in full swing last week. Just days after they were appointed in the board of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), Georgi Hristosov, Boyan Boev and Ilko Dimitrov stared the replacement of the management of the companies in the holding structure. The much expected change in NPP Kozloduy finally happened. CEO Valentin Nikolov left its headquarters. For the strikingly brilliant career of the specialist in internal combustion engines, the BANKER has written repeatedly – Valentin Nikolov has been a GERB MP, Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy, and then CEO of one of the most profitable and key Bulgarian enterprises.
From the board of the company were removed also Todor Shopov and Valentin Gruev – appointed at the time of the interim government. But as predicted, the promises of the caretaker minister Asen Vasilev that for the position Executive Director of Kozloduy there will be a transparent and fair competition procedure, no go down in history. Now the head position is occupied by Ivan Genov, who was CEO of the company in the period 2007-2009.
A check shows that Genov is partner and manager of two companies – I and C Engineering Consult and Clarks Energy. From the website of the first we learn that it is a growing company that specializes in the field of energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, nuclear energy and other activities. There are still no officially announced projects the company is working on.
Far more interesting is the Clarks Energy case. According to Daxy register, the company was founded at the end of April 2012 and its object of activity includes preparation of expert assessments of the state of the dismantled units and equipment from decommissioned nuclear power plants, engineering services in the process of decommissioning nuclear power plants, organizing and carrying out dismantling and sale of decommissioned equipment and facilities of nuclear power facilities. This is the exact scenario for the first four units of NPP Kozloduy.
Judging on what has been written in the Bulgarian public procurement register Quant Engineering is among the regular bidders announced by the NPP Kozloduy. Since 2007 and until now it have been assigned 19 orders for tens of millions of euros, most of which took place in the period when Ivan Genov was the managing director of the power plant.
Besides Genov the board of Kozloduy includes former deputy of Valentin Nikolov – Alexander Nikolov. Such a move was somewhat expected, since at the beginning of March it came to a showdown between him and his boss. Alexander Nikolov openly accused Mr. Valentin Nikolov of delaying maintenance and investment programme of the plant and predicted that the effects of his period in office will be fatal not only for the company. Then the rebel was quickly tamed by his boss, but he words certainly were taken into consideration by Minister Dragomir Stoynev.
The latest recruit to the management of the NPP was Georgi Hristosov. He will go out of the board of Maritsa East II, as the statutes of BEH and regulations in Bulgaria require.
The appointment of Hristosov can however create new disputes as Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office has already sent a decree to Minister Dragomir Stoynev for immediate removal and revocation of access to classified information for Hristosov.
Major reshuffles were made in Maritsa East Mines. CEO Teodor Drebov was asked to leave. He led the company since August 2012, replacing then Evgeni Stoykov due to his misunderstanding with the leadership of the trade unions. Previously Drebov worked in the Natural Resources and Concessions in the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism. He was also the director of state mines Anthracite and Bobov dol, he managed various departments of the former Committee on Energy and the State Agency for Energy and Energy Resources.
The BANKER
