Prisons and monasteries took from EU funds to help farmers in the covid crisis

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has found that payments have been made in Bulgaria under the M21 rural development measure to prisons and monasteries. This is clear from the published annual
report
for 2021. Payments were made during the time of Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva (GERB). The ECA specifies that such entities do not rely on agricultural activity and have not experienced liquidity and cash flow problems to the extent that they justify the provision of exceptional assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The additional measure (M21 “Exceptional temporary support for farmers and SMEs particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis”) was added in 2020. The main objective of measure M21 is to support farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in processing, marketing or developing agricultural products that are particularly affected by the crisis, COVID-19.

In Bulgaria, these requirements have not been met (p. 221 of the report).

BIRD has been collecting and processing data on
coronary subsidies
since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, we easily find a state-owned enterprise “Prison Case Fund” among the recipients of crown subsidies with European funding. It is easy to find the granted crown subsidies to monasteries.

There is a possibility that the allocated amounts will be more, as for the last multi-million payments from the SFA under measure M21 there is no detailed information about the recipients.

During the time of the Minister of Agriculture Desislava Taneva (GERB), the Director of the State Fund Agriculture Vasil Grudev issued several orders with a budget and the conditions for applying under measure M21. The orders were agreed with the Minister. In 2021, we revealed that relatives of Desislava Taneva also settled with corona subsidies from the SFA.

Again ineligible costs of the Ministry of Interior for jeeps

An order for 18 new ” off-road” SUVs for the Ministry of Interior is also included in the ECA’s annual report (page 237). The European Court of Auditors has found that Bulgaria has purchased inadmissible types of vehicles. An inspection found that only five of the 10 checked met the definition of off-road vehicles. This is already a relapse, after OLAF earlier sanctioned Bulgaria with
6 million euros
because someone in the ministry bought the wrong SUVs in 2017-2018.

Inspections of EU projects are manipulated

The European Court of Auditors has found that the checks of EU projects in Bulgaria are not made randomly, which we revealed in our earlier publication. This is also reflected now in the annual report for the financial year 2021 (page 241).

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Разследващата журналистика е разузнаването на гражданите. BIRD се финансира от дарения. Ние не публикуваме реклами. Не получаваме държавни субсидии. Не разчитаме на грантове. Финансирането чрез малки дарения от читатели е гаранция за нашата независимост. Включете се, за да продължим да разкриваме злоупотреби и да държим отговорни властимащите. Използваме Вашите пари за хонорари на журналистите, командировки, изграждане и поддръжка на нашите информационни системи, такси за фирмени и имотни регистри у нас и по света, придобиване на техника и специално оборудване, осигуряване на нашата безопасност и други важни работни мисии. Важно: Ако дарявате всеки месец това ще ни даде възможност да планираме и организираме нашата работа. Благодарим Ви! Нас ни има, защото Вас Ви има!

This post is also available in: Български (Bulgarian)