site.btaOutgoing Finance Minister: Information Brought out by Zhivko Kotsev that He Was Threatened to Quit His Post Is Absolutely Unacceptable

Outgoing Finance Minister Assen Vassilev told journalists on Saturday that the information that Zhivko Kotsev gave that he was blackmailed to quit the Interior Ministry Secretary General post is "absolutely unacceptable in a normal European country".

Vassilev commented that if someone has real evidence against Zhivko Kotsev, this evidence should be presented in court and the court should suspend him. "Resorting to thuggish approaches, where he is threatened to resign himself, speaks to me purely in the most logical way that there is no evidence for his removal, there are attempts to intimidate him," Vassilev said.

On the case of Customs Agency Director Petya Bankova Vassilev said that according to him the Customs Agency had achieved very good results in the fight against smuggling, a record amount of seized drugs.

Regarding claims by Vazrazhdane related to the manipulation of statistical data and the decision of the Parliament, submitted by GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms to ensure the financial stability and fiscal liquidity of the state, the outgoing minister assured that there are no problems with Bulgaria's financial situation.

Revenues are exactly as budgeted, expenditures are made strictly according to the law, Vassilev said. Some of the expenditure that has been incurred in the last two weeks relates to a legal deadline of March 31 to work out a methodology for wages and to address imbalances, and therefore to complete analyses and incur expenditure on a number of other items, but all of this is within budget and there is no room for concern.

At the end of the week Vozrazhdane requested and met with the Chairman of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) Atanas Atanasov. After the meeting, the NSI said that suspicions of manipulation had been dispelled.