GERB Minister Presses Subordinates to Allocate EU Funds to Thousands of Livestock Breeders in Kardzhali

Over 1400 livestock farms in the district of Kardzhali and thousands more throughout the country have been financed with European funds without being registered under art. 137 of the Veterinary Practice Act (ATA). This is evidenced by independent audits of EU funds. In February 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF) amended the Ordinance 44, which regulates the legal basis for the development of livestock breeding. With the changes, registration becomes an irrevocable condition for farmers wishing to absorb money from Europe. To date, there are thousands of farmers of livestock farms who are not registered under the text in question by the Road Traffic Act or are registered in violation, but have nevertheless absorbed funds under the coupled support.

The problem is very important because it is systemic abuse. and administrative arbitrariness on the part of the MAFF. From the documents available to BIRD.BG, we can deduce the reasonable assumption that the then Minister of Agriculture Desislava Taneva was clearly aware of the scale of the crisis that is unfolding in her mandate.

In the last months of the third cabinet of Boyko Borisov, in September 2020, a team from the BFSA met with Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva. The information that several audits have established SFA payments for coupled support to sites that are not registered under Art. 137, which is in violation of the requirements of the scheme. In 2021. under coupled support schemes under which livestock farmers are financed are provided for over 120 million Lv.. For 2020, the sector is allocated approximately
same amount
.

In various reports in the BFSA, which have reached the State Agency for National Security and the Ministry of Interior, it is described that the government of GERB, in the face of Taneva, has tried to exert pressure over the service to cover up the problem. In September 2020, the “guests” from the BFSA were told that in order for payments to unregistered sites to continue, the latter must be registered as a matter of urgency under the ATA article in question. The BFSA was instructed to require applications for registration by the beneficiaries, to carry out checks and to register the sites, regardless of whether they meet the requirements. From the State Fund “Agriculture” was submitted a list of the sites to be registered under art. 137 and a deadline was set for the BFSA until September 25 of the same year to organize the registration and coverage of the information in VetIS. The signals show evidence that a directorate council was organized after the meeting with Taneva. Witnesses say the task was presented by prof. Dr. Pascal Jeliazkov, who was then Executive Director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. The majority of the attending employees of the RFSD express doubts in the legality and feasibility of the task set in this way.

Subsequently, the Health and Animal Welfare and Feed Control Directorate of the BFSA prepared a letter to the regional directorates of the Ministry with instructions. They explain how the registration process can be carried out in a lawful manner. According to the signal, the same letter was suspended after verbal orders by a minister Desislava Taneva.

Minister Taneva pushes not for the first time

As it became clear, the infringements concern coupled support schemes, which must support real farmers. In June 2020, before the alleged meetings between the BFSA officials and the Desislava Taneva, Bivol

released a video

in which the former minister said:

“I suggest you stick that we don’t have such scams and everything is fine, because otherwise this (funding) will stop us. In the end, we did what the industry wanted. But now let’s brag about what kind of fraudsters we are? Tomorrow they will say, so you should not receive this help!”

The words of the Minister of Agriculture Desislava Taneva. They relate precisely to the Coupled Support direct support scheme. It admits that the scheme has been severely compromised by numerous frauds found. Her words are in response to the questions asked by Georgi Vassilev, who is the organizational secretary of the Bulgarian pepper association. The recording is from the Advisory Council on Fruit and Vegetable Growing, held probably on March 27 this year. In practice, Taneva tells Vassilev and all participants in the Advisory Council on Fruit and Vegetable Growing that Bulgaria is in serious violations that should remain secret to our European partners.

Our team contacted the former Agriculture Minister Taneva for comment. She denied that he had pressured the registration of livestock farms in violation of the law. She pointed out that she could not have done it because she did not know the committees that had implemented the procedure. The former GERB minister linked the information about alleged pressure on her part with the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Registrations without documents of ownership and without signature of the director

The registration of livestock farms under art. 137 of the Road Traffic Act is progressing in most of the territory of the country, but three of the Regional Food Safety Directorates – Kardzhali, Haskovo and Stara Zagora are lagging behind with the registration of sites and the provision of information. They face a significant problem as a large number of beneficiaries are unable to submit documents of ownership or the right of use for the properties in which their sites are housed. On the ground, some of the inspection committees refuse to register sites that do not meet the veterinary requirements, thus refusing to commit unlawful actions.

Then follows a visit of the then Executive Director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency to the Regional Food Safety Agency – Kardzhali. Within a very short time, all sites from the lists of State Fund Agriculture in the district were registered and the data were entered into the information system of the BFSA – VetIS. Due to the short deadlines, in parallel with the preparation of the registration certificates of the sites under art. 137 of the ATC, they are introduced in VetIS, without them being signed by the director.

According to experts we consulted, the registration of a livestock farm is mandatory and includes an application form with the documents applicable to it, such as a document of ownership of the property on which the site is located, a contract with a veterinarian, a fee paid, technology of animals kept in the site. An order is also required for the convening of a commission issued by the director of the respective RFSD for a commission to carry out an on-site inspection. In the investigated cases, according to information from our sources, on-site inspections were almost not made. After the inspection, a certificate or refusal follows. This sequence should be observed precisely with the deadlines specified in the ATCA. In this case, there is no way the deadline specified in the law – 6 months, given that the application is from 2020. The procedure should probably be “restarted”, but obviously this is not done.

Prosecutors search and seize documents

However, the actions did not go unnoticed and law enforcement agencies were approached. The District Investigation Department at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Kardzhali enters the Searches In the local RFSD on 16.11.2020, the registration files of veterinary sites were seized, and pre-trial proceedings were initiated under number 37/2020 under the inventory of the District Investigation Department. Naturally, pre-trial proceedings are conducted against an unknown perpetrator. The investigators are working on the hypothesis that in 2020 an official in the Regional Food Safety Agency – Kardzhali has violated or has not fulfilled his official duties, or has exceeded his authority or rights in order to obtain for himself or for another property benefit, or to cause harm to others. The supervising prosecutor in the case is prosecutor Rositsa Georgieva Georgieva, the same one who leads
pre-trial proceedings
against Lyutvi Mestan.

When we contacted prosecutor Georgieva for comment, she said that at this stage she does not want to talk to the media, but the case is not about unauthorized benefit and we have not understood something. From the conversation with the accuser, our team was left with the impression that the investigation in Kardzhali is not conducted neither for abuse of office nor for unauthorized benefit, much less for misuse of European funds. We never received information exactly on which text of the Penal Code the pre-trial proceedings were initiated, although according to the prosecution’s website it is for crimes in office.

Despite our numerous attempts, we were unable to contact the spokesperson of the Kardzhali District Prosecutor’s Office – Dimitrina Delcheva Rigova. Coincidentally, her husband Todor Rigov is Head of the Security Police Sector in the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Kardzhali and in this capacity he has participated in committees for control of outbreaks of infections together with representatives of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. Rigov is also a member of the Regional Council on Ethnic and Integration Issues in Kardzhali.

After the launch of the investigation, in 2021 there was a stormy correspondence on the case between the SFA, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency and the Regional Food Safety Directorate-Kardzhali. At the end of July 2021, the SFA asks the BFSA which of the applied beneficiaries from Kardzhali have livestock farms registered under Art. 137, and who No. After a long meeting on the subject BFSA, which throughout the management of GERB, and probably before that, enjoys the reputation of a heavily corrupt institution, still comes up with a decision. The institution concludes that it cannot provide information to the SFA about the certificates issued with a completed procedure because they are subject to inspection by the Prosecutor’s Office. For sites with an uncompleted procedure under art. 137 the working group in the BFSA gives an opinion that they should be considered as unregistered and a new registration procedure can be initiated for them. The Director of the Regional Food Safety Agency in Kardzhali was sent instructions from the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency to request copies of the seized files from the Prosecutor’s Office in Kardzhali. By a decree of 12.08.2021, the District Prosecutor’s Office provided the copies to the Regional Food Safety Directorate-Kardzhali of the 1,184 documents seized, because, according to the state prosecution, this would not prevent the disclosure of the objective truth of the case. The Regional Food Safety Directorate-Kardzhali informed the BFSA about the receipt of copies of the files on 189 pcs. Objects. The regional directorate requests instructions from the BFSA for the further proceeding on the registration of all 1476 livestock holdings.

What does the caretaker government do?

According to the signal that reached the BIRD.BG team, instead of going to unravel the situation and refine the livestock farms that can receive registration under Art. 137 of the ZVD and those who have to remove documentary or other vices, the caretaker cabinet puts pressure on the BFSA, similar to the one allegedly exerted by Taneva, in order to bring into VetIS as many livestock farms as possible from the “hanging” in the Kardzhali region.

On the agenda are the questions why Rumen Radev’s appointments The cabinet is trying to “regulate” these sites just before the elections and does this have anything to do with the fact that the region is saturated with DPS electorate? Actions that repeat those of the government of GERB. It is also unclear why the investigation of the local prosecutor’s office has not been transferred to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, given that it is clearly the competent authority to investigate the euromillions absorbed in violation of the law.

***

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