site.btaTISP to Submit Bill Supplementing Non-Profit Legal Entities Act

There Is Such a People (TISP) MP Aleksandar Rashev said here on Friday his party's will be tabling a bill to supplement the Non-Profit Legal Entities Act. 

"It became unequivocally clear from the horrifying Petrohan-Okolchitsa case that in 2022 the government had delegated its control and public functions to a non-governmental organization (NGO) that turned out to be a sect with pedophilic tendencies," Rashev said.  

According to him, this is not an isolated case. “Under the governments of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC–DB), we have seen public resources and oversight functions being delegated to the non-governmental sector,” he added.

Rashev further explained that the provisions in the draft bill stipulate that non-profit legal entities must not engage in activities similar to or overlapping with those of bodies vested with public functions; the delegated exercise of public powers by non-profit legal entities is prohibited; and the delegation of powers by state and municipal bodies entrusted with public functions is also prohibited.

The activities of legal entities that do not comply with these provisions will be subject to termination, and their assets will be confiscated in favor of the state, Rashev added.

As regards the founders of such NGOs that perform public and oversight functions of the state, a fine of EUR 25,000 will be imposed, which will go up to EUR 100,000 in the event of a repeat violation.

“What has become clear from the public domain is that the reports filed since 2022 by the boy, who managed to escape from this sect on time, were covered up by the then leadership of the Ministry of Interior, whose minister at the time was Boyko Rashkov,” said TISP deputy leader Stanislav Balabanov, commenting on the Petrohan case.

“I can clearly see the repositioning of CC–DB political formation, aimed at throwing other distractions into the public domain in order to conceal this signal, while shifting blame onto the institutions. The idea is to continue the narrative that whenever they are at fault, the institutions are to blame,” he added. 

“For us, our children come first. When they are threatened in one way or another, there is no force in the world that can say this should not be discussed,” Balabanov said.

“We will politicize Petrohan as much as necessary to protect our children,” he added.