site.btaAgriculture Minister Alerts Prosecution Service of Malpractices in Animal Waste Incineration

Caretaker Agriculture and Food Minister Ivan Hristanov submitted an alert to the prosecution service on Friday regarding alleged abuse in a public procurement procedure for incinerators. The Minister made public his alert at a news briefing outside the government headquarters.

He said that on his very first day in office he instructed the Ministry inspectorate and the internal audit unit to conduct a full inspection of the incinerators in Bulgaria. According to the agriculture minister, it turned out that funds amounting to BGN 45 million for a three-year period had been spent in only half of that time (18–19 months), and a request has been made for additional resources.

"The audit report, which is quite extensive, contains data on specific violations, and we hope the prosecution service will finally uncover crimes," Ivan Hristanov stated. According to him, there were violations by veterinarians who were supposed to oversee the spending of the BGN 45 million, but they were either not at work at all or had been moved to other positions. Pollution of water sources has also been registered, he added.

Minister Hristanov also announced that there are additional alerts which the ministry will submit regarding the same case.

He said that instructions are being sent to operators and owners of livestock facilities so that they know how to act when they need incineration services. They must contact rendering plants and incinerators and take animal waste to them. "A situation of a crisis has arisen because a critical service related to veterinary security has been monopolized," Minister Hristanov said.

He named the monopolist company: IDDD Logistic.

The agriculture minister stated that he has been the target of attacks ever since the lineup of the caretaker government was announced and that these attacks have escalated in recent days following his announcement of an unspecified national security threat in late February.