Over a third of coronasubsidies never reach businesses

An analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data shows that nearly 350 million leva of the funds allocated so far go to state and municipal companies, ministries and agencies. The amount could reach half a billion leva by the end of 2020.

The BRRD’s information system for tracking coronary subsidies contains data on nearly 1.2 billion leva of subsidies to address the coronary crisis so far. The results are presented in a search engine that can be searched by company name, company UIC, assistance program, company activity, owners and other criteria.

Anti-crisis measures to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic receive 68% disapproval from business, reports Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce on 1 December 2020. All indicators are in the red: 71% declare that the condition of their company has worsened (compared to 25% last year); 66% have not used the 60/40 program; 85% have not used the aid for preserving jobs in transport and tourism; 89% have not applied for assistance for tour operators and travel agencies, 98% have not used the grant (3-450 000 BGN), 98% have not used the grant (3-450 000 BGN).) for small and medium-sized companies in transport; 65% did not use the grant aid (BGN 3-10 thousand) for micro and small enterprises; 89% did not use the grant aid (BGN 30-150 thousand) for medium-sized enterprises; 90% did not use the working capital loans of the BDB at all; over 90% to 99% did not use microcredit, working capital or other financing.

The devastating assessment of business and the BIA of the government’s measures has been quoted and discussed in the business and general media all week

“Where the hell is the money?”

Asks in the headline of its analysis Capital on December 4, 2020, and days earlier, in a publication“The ‘new’ money for business turned out to be repackaged old“, exposes the false claims of the economic minister. “Businesses: we need support now, not an election and a bribed cornucopia,” Mediapool quotes the entrepreneurs’ call. On Monday, 7 December 2020, during a visit to Tsalapitsa, one of the companies benefiting from the 60/40 measure, the Prime Minister replied in absentia:

“Over BGN 1 billion and BGN 100 million have been given by the state through the anti-crisis measures since March to support small, micro, medium and other enterprises.”
Boyko Borissov, Prime Minister, on 7 December 2020, quoted by the Press Centre of the Council of Ministers.

Is that how it really is?

However, analysis of the data shows otherwise. Nearly 350 million leva, or about 1/3 of all funds allocated so far to address the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, are going to state and municipal companies, ministries and agencies. A total of 17 public enterprises controlled by the Public Enterprises and Control Agency(PACA) of the Council of Ministers are among the beneficiaries of significant amounts.

The most striking example of the biggest beneficiary is the state-owned enterprise“Mines Maritsa-East” EAD, together with its branches – the mines, which, as Capital notes, is losing money even after receiving tens of millions of coronasubsidies. Another large public enterprise with the lion’s share of the coronasubsidies isBulgarian Posts EAD.

The biggest beneficiary so far is the Ministry of Health with more than 280 million BGN of coronasubsidies under three procedures and they should not be seen as “economic” measures to support business. The first one, “Fighting COVID 19” under the Operational Programme “Regions in Growth“, is for BGN 40.4 million with 85% EU funding. The other two are identically titled “Supporting health workers in the face of a public health threat from COVID-19”, both under the Human Resources Development Operational Programme, one for 60 million BGN. with 85% EU funding and the other one is for BGN 180 million.but now with 100% EU funding. A significant proportion of these funds should have been earmarked for additional remuneration of frontline medics, but how much was actually paid, for which periods and to what number of frontline workers has not yet been reported, excluding sporadic reports of both paymentsboth for administrative irregularities and non-payment.

Dozens of municipal enterprises are also among the beneficiaries, and the table below provides summary information on the municipalities with the most coronasubsidies.

Sofia Municipality holds the championship with “Metropolitan”, “Center for Urban Mobility”,“Sofia Bus Transport“,“Sofia Electric Transport” and others.

“Burgasbus” contributes to almost the entire amount of coronasubsidies in the municipality of Burgas.“Passenger Transport” in Sliven ranks the city third among the municipalities. In Stara Zagora, Ruse, Gabrovo and Pleven the credit again goes to the municipal transport companies.

Support for bus operators is now double counted

Last week, the Ministry of Transport and Information Technology published a list of carriers that received EU subsidies to deal with the consequences of COVID-19 under the Operational Programme “Innovation and Competitiveness”. A list in which even“zero became a letter” to hide companies close to power. Now, however, the programme with a budget of 30 million BGN is already reported twice in the ISMS: once in measure BG16RFOP002-2.079 and a second time in measure BG16RFOP002-2.091.

Complete lack of transparency by the SFA

The State Fund “Agriculture” announces on its website that it has paid grants to tens of thousands of farmers, as part of measure 21 “Emergency temporary support for farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis” of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 (RDP 2014-2020). Who they are is not known. Traditionally for the Fund – lists of grant recipients are not published.

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