site.btaEx-Caretaker Interior Minister Charged with Mismanagement Worth Nearly BGN 1.5 Mln

The Sofia City Prosecution Office has charged a former caretaker interior minister with mismanagement worth BGN 1,482,218, the institution said. The crime was committed on June 2, 2023.

Ivan Demerdzhiev was caretaker interior minister until June 6, 2023, according to BTA's Reference Department. Pre-trial proceedings were initiated on January 16, 2024.

Having analyzed the evidence, the supervising prosecutor found reasonable grounds to believe that the case involves mismanagement in particularly large amounts, constituting a very serious offence.

The prosecution service claims that on June 2, 2023, the caretaker minister failed to exercise sufficient care in managing the property entrusted to him by signing a document to increase prices for activities subject to a contract for the development of a Bulgarian ID system. This violated the Public Procurement Act and the Ministry's internal rules for public procurement management.

The price increase did not follow a methodology approved by the government. There was no draft document prepared by a legal expert from the Interior Ministry's Property Management and Social Affairs Directorate, and no market research was done on the pricing of the contract activities by certified evaluators. This caused detriment to the amount of BGN 1,482,218.

The former caretaker interior minister was charged with the crime ten days ago. He was set BGN 10,000 bail.