Prosecutors to Probe Ex Agriculture Fund Execs over Delayed Projects

Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister is to alert the prosecuting authority about activities of the former chief executive of the State Fund Agriculture (SFA) and his deputy.

Grekov, as cited by investor.bg, made clear Monday that he would submit to the prosecutor's office a request and a report from a probe concerning projects reviewed by the former CEO and Deputy CEO of the SFA.

Grekov, and Atanas Dobrev, who was appointed SFA head last week, gave a press conference to shed light on the results of the in-depth probe at the SFA of the past few days.

Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister reminded that the new management had found 3593 unsigned documents, including around 2000 "deliberately delayed" projects under Operational Program Rural Development, in the offices of the former CEO and Deputy CEO of the SFA, Miroslav Nikolov and Violeta Alexandrova, respectively.

He pointed out that a large part of these documents were not included in the electronic archive.

Grekov stated that the 180-page report listing all violations would be submitted to the prosecuting authority.

Both Grekov and Dobrev refused to disclose concrete violations.

However, the new CEO of the SFA emphasized that his appointment was not politically motivated and assured that his office was open to each and every Bulgarian.

He noted that he faced the serious task of clearing the image of the SFA which protected the interests of Bulgarian cultural workers.

He boasted that over 47 projects worth around BGN 15 M under the Operational Program Rural Development had been signed in just four days.