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Government accuses Road Infrastructure Agency of botching road maintenance

Deputy Minister of Finance Andrei Tsekov
Photo: FB/Council of Ministers

“The country has been deprived of road maintenance for the coming months. Public interest and public health have been impaired and jeopardized,” said Deputy Minister of Finance Andrei Tsekov at an extraordinary briefing called after the Road Infrastructure Agency terminated the road repair and maintenance contracts concluded in April over “gaps in documentation”.

The Road Infrastructure Agency is a malign system, Andrei Tsekov added regarding the awarding of public contracts in-house. “There is data of manipulation of the procurement procedures,” Deputy Minister Tsekov stated and added that the latest example was the procedure for the Ruse-Veliko Turnovo motorway.

On Facebook, outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov demanded the resignation of the head of the Road Infrastructure Agency.

Meanwhile outgoing Vice PM and Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Grozdan Karadzhov called into question the information presented by Tsekov. According to him, it was not Road Infrastructure Agency who cancelled the public procurement, but the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) as a result of an appeal against the tender documentation. 

The procedures in question were "too restrictive conditions from which only the state would benefit", that is, against the principles of free competition. According to Karadjov, the outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is responsible for the restrictive terms.



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