No Infringements In National Road Infrastructure Fund Auditors

The two reports by the Finance Ministry's inspectorate on possible misuse of funds at the National Road Infrastructure Fund (NRIF), as well as the final report of the European Union Funds Audit Directorate, showed there were no infringements in the fund's operations, the Finance Ministry said on February 29.

There were no unexplained expenses concerning the projects financed under EU's pre-accession infrastructure aid programme ISPA or using cohesion funds, according to the reports. At the same time, there were also no serious violations in the functioning of the fund's management and control systems.

The fund's executive director Vesselin Georgiev resigned earlier this month after it emerged that a company, Binder JSV, in which his brother was on the board of directors, had received the majority of NRIF's contracts, worth tens of millions of leva. Media investigations also revealed that Binder was the only bidder for several of the controversial public procurements contracts assigned to it.

NRIF's new executive director Milosh Potskov has already presented the new organisational structure that the auditors said would improve control over the allocation of funds by NRIF. The results of the investigations into NRIF's activities, as well as the proposal for the new structure of the fund, would be sent to the European Commission, which would then decide if and when to unfreeze the allocation of funding for infrastructure projects.

The results of the investigations into NRIF's activities, as well as the proposal for the new structure of the fund, would be sent to the European Commission, which would then decide if and when to unfreeze the allocation of funding for infrastructure projects.