site.btaDeputy Prime Minister Zaharieva:State's Functioning Is At Risk

Deputy Prime Minister Zaharieva:
State's Functioning
Is At Risk


Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, September 29 (BTA) - "There are
urgent payments that have to be made and a budget update is
inevitable, as the functioning of the whole state is at risk,"
said Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development and
Investment Planning Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva in Plovdiv on
Monday.

She said that the situation with the budget of the Regional
Development Ministry is worrying. In her words, 78 per cent of
the ministry budget was spent between January and June, which
caused several key projects to halt. She cited repairs of
viaducts, where all works have been put on hold because of
unpaid 5-5.8 million leva to contractors. In addition, a tender
for the repairs of 34 kms of Trakia motorway had to be
postponed.

Road Infrastructure Agency Director Lazar Lazarov said that
winter road maintenance will go as planned as it is paid by the
2015 budget. However, he warned that unless roads are prepared
for the winter, they will be in a state of disrepair in spring.
He said that large infrastructure projects and repairs of
several bridges and a key north-south road that were damaged by
torrential rains wonТt be completed. According to Lazarov, 15
million are needed for current repairs and as many for large
infrastructure projects. He added that the Agency's deficit in
2014 totals 78 million leva.

Also, Deputy Prime Minister Zaharieva said that suspended
payments under two EU-backed operational programmes have not
resumed. Zaharieva commented that if the caretaker government
stopped payments altogether, money and jobs will be lost, and
municipalities will be discouraged from implementing EU
projects. The situation is complicated even more by the closure
of the fourth-largest bank in the country. Zaharieva said that
the budget deficit was due to a poorly planned budget and
unrealistic budget revenue projections, where a shortfall of
around 1.1 billion leva expected. "There is no money for social
activities. Some 160 million leva, needed to increase police
officers' wages have not been set aside, and the National Health
Insurance Fund is underfunded," said Zaharieva. However, she
gave assurances that there will be money for pensions. VI/PP