site.btaDеmocratic Bulgaria Requests Dismissal of Health Insurance Fund's Deputy Governor

Democratic Bulgaria (DB) MP Ivaylo Mirchev said on Friday that DB is submitting a request for the dismissal of National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) Deputy Governor Momchil Mavrov, who, according to media reports, is one of the symbols of corrupt practices in Bulgaria's healthcare system.

Commenting on the allegations of corrupt practices, DB MP Bozhidar Bozhanov said that the NHIF deputy governor had previously had some of his powers revoked by the current NHIF governor "precisely because of such violations".

"During the procedure in the National Assembly, we requested the report by the NHIF governor on the basis of which those powers were withdrawn," Bozhanov said. He cited alleged overpricing of information technology services and obstruction of inspections at the regional health insurance funds in Pazardzhik and Plovdiv.

"The change of model that this government promised and for which it received significant public support is not happening at this stage. This is particularly evident in the healthcare sector, where people who were symbols of that model continue to occupy key positions," Mirchev said.

Referring to a decision by the Central Election Commission (CEC), Bozhanov also said that the President's decree had a calculation error of quota allocations in the CEC.

"Until now, we have never encountered a situation in which one party holds more than half the seats in the National Assembly, while the Election Code limits it to no more than half of the members of the CEC. This procedure has never been applied before, and a mistake was made in the Presidency's calculations. We sent an official letter outlining the problems in the application of this methodology,” Bozhanov said.

He added that the current allocation provides two CEC seats for Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and two for Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), whereas a corrected calculation would result in three seats for CC-DB (one for Continue the Change and two for Democratic Bulgaria) and one seat for MRF.

"We insist that the President correct the decree," Bozhanov said.