Bulgaria Parliament Appoints New Audit Office Head

Tsvetan Tsvetkov, the single candidate to take over the National Audit Office, has been approved by an overwhelming majority in Bulgaria's Parliament.

As many as 146 MPs voted to back Tsvetkov. Only one rejected him, and twenty-one abstained, most of them being from the socialist opposition. The nationalist Ataka party did not take part in the vote.

Tsvetkov's candidacy was put forward by the senior coalition partner, conservative Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party.

He told Parliament that the institution he is taking over urgently needs to improve quality of financial audits and to boost control over interim reports, also forging relations of better interaction with the legislature.

Initially there had been two candidates, Tsvetkov and one from the nationalist coalition Patriotic Front, Goritsa Grancharova

However, the PF withdrew their proposal an hour before the vote in Parliament, announcing it was convinced of Tsvetkov's qualities, but also would like to see Grancharova in his team.

The appointment of a new National Audit Office head came after legislation was amended by the current Parliament, reducing the strength of the auditing body's management to 5 members, down from nine.

This constitutes a reversal to changes made by the previous legislature under the socialist-liberal government led by PM Plamen Oresharski, which put in question a number of acts passed during now-PM Boyko Borisov's first tenure. Outgoing head Lidiya Rumenova was elected shortly after the changes.