site.btaMRF Leader Peevksi Calls for Closure of Public Enterprises and Control Agency

MRF Chair and MRF - New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski calls for the closure of the Public Enterprises and Control Agency (PECA), the press centre of the formation said. In his words, the looting of state property should stop.

State property should be used to fulfil commitments to the people - to build schools and kindergartens, housing for the military, police, firefighters and their families, hospitals and medical facilities, homes for the elderly and sick, Peevski is quoted as saying. It should be used to provide housing for young doctors and teachers across the country and to create conditions for the development of regions by attracting public-private partnerships, with the participation of municipalities and state structures.

He said that for all this to happen, State-owned enterprises and property need to stay where they are. “The first step to accomplish this task is the closure of the Public Enterprises and Control Agency, the successor to the Privatisation and Post-Privatisation Control Agency, and the development of a property management strategy for each ministry, municipality and State structure,” Peevski argued.

Every ministry and every institution should manage property for the benefit of the people, and the State as a good steward should be committed to this, the position reads further.

MRF - New Beginning will put an end to the looting, and nothing will be sold from now on, Peevski said further. The MP proposes to close the structures that have carried out privatisation and change the legal framework related to the management and control of State and municipal property and enterprises, which will stop the sale of state property.

“All attempts to suggest that there is 'good' privatisation - when they sell the offices of [President] Rumen Radev or the office of Ivan Kostov - the father of the robbery in broad daylight of state assets sold for pennies in the hands of oligarchs like Prokopiev, and 'bad’ privatisation - one in which Radev, Kostov and their people do not participate, are wind and fog,” Peevski said.

The Public Enterprises and Control Agency is a unit coordinating state policy on public enterprises.

At the beginning of May, the Government announced a planned sale of State-owned property, with the resources going into a fund for the construction of kindergartens and schools. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov explained at the time that an analysis had been carried out on 4,400 properties, 1,800 being land and buildings, 1,200 being buildings only. A Programme for the Exercise of Rights on State-Owned Properties and on Properties Owned by State Public Enterprises was tabled in the National Assembly to reach a political consensus for the effective exercise of the right of ownership over the properties in question, the Council of Ministers said in its reasoning.

At the beginning of May, the Government announced a planned sale of State-owned property, with the resources going into a fund for the construction of kindergartens and schools. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov explained at the time that an analysis had been carried out on 4,400 properties, 1,800 being land and buildings, 1,200 being buildings only. A Programme for Exercising Rights over State-Owned Properties and Properties Owned by State Public Enterprises was tabled in the National Assembly to reach a political consensus for the effective exercise of the right of ownership over the properties in question, the Council of Ministers said in its reasoning.

The proposal has been met with strong opposition and calls for greater transparency and a stronger focus on the public interest. On August 10, President Radev said: "The government of Peevski and [GERB leader Boyko] Borisov is preparing to sell off State-owned properies – some along the Black Sea coast, others along the state border. They are plotting the biggest swindle since the 1990s. This involves 4,400 state properties. It is no coincidence that they pushed through changes to the State Property Act just before the holiday season," the President said.  A day later, the head of State vetoed provisions of the State Property Act amendments adopted on July 31 with the votes of GERB-UDF, MRF - New Beginning, BSP-United Left, There is Such a People, and two independent MPs.