site.btaContinue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria Submits Bill Introducing Body Cameras for Road Transport Administration Employees

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) have submitted a bill to introduce body cameras for all employees of the Road Transport Administration (RTA) Executive Agency, said Yes, Bulgaria (part of the parliamentary group) Co-Chair Ivaylo Mirchev at a briefing in Parliament on Wednesday.

"This is one of the most corrupt institutions and it is very difficult to find an uncorrupted RTA employee," Mirchev said. "The Movement for Rights and Freedoms and GERB refused to regulate the wearing of body cameras, as a result of which police officers wear them when they want to," he added. It turns out that there are no body camera recordings of the largest corruption scandals because it is not profitable for the Ministry of Interior, the MP said. "To prevent this from happening in the RTA, we have proposed a change in the law, which I hope will now be voted on, so that at the Iron Maiden concert we do not have to check again whether the system is working and how corrupt they still are," Mirchev said.

He also commented on the official food price information website, which was launched on Tuesday. "This website is useless," he argued. According to him, the website does not work for people, only a team of several programmers can figure out what to do with it. He urged for it to be reworked.

He also announced that Democratic Bulgaria is proposing to set up a commission to investigate [Movement for Rights and Freedoms - New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan] Peevski's activities. "He came again today with a motorcade of armored cars," Mirchev said. "Obviously, this commission will have to be set up to investigate all his activities, how many companies he has bankrupted, all his corrupt actions, what businesses he has bought, how much he has bankrupted, because he has no successful companies," added the MP.

Mirchev argued that hundreds of millions are being embezzled through increased product tax payments. "This is an activity that was covered by Mr. Taki [an alias of the controversial businessman Hristoforos Amanatidis], who is a close partner of [GERB-UDF Floor Leader] Boyko Borissov and Delyan Peevski, and is better known as the seventh prime minister," he said. "There were three prime ministers, then there were five according to Borissov, six with Tomislav Donchev, who was acting prime minister, and now the seventh prime minister is Taki," said the MP. His argument was that companies linked to Taki collect the rubbish in Burgas and Plovdiv, and now he is trying to take over the rubbish collection in Sofia. "He took the product taxes and now collects around BGN 2 billion in annual revenue from the State Budget alone," Mirchev said at the briefing.

CC-DB MP Martin Dimitrov described the data on the country's budget as "shocking". In his words, the cabinet is pursuing a "leftist" policy and the situation is "extremely worrying". Dimitrov also cited data from the Fiscal Council, according to which there is talk of a 5.1% deficit, which is a negative record in Bulgaria's recent history. 

"If urgent measures are not taken, we are heading towards a Romanian scenario, which will lead to tax increases, high inflation, hit every Bulgarian in the pocket, raise prices and halt economic growth," Dimitrov added. According to him, there is an attempt to break the 25-year consensus on spending restraint and a tax increase is being prepared, as already mentioned by former GERB finance minister Vladislav Goranov, who spoke in favour of raising VAT and excise duties. "We need to reduce, optimize and streamline spending," the MP added. According to Dimitrov, the eurozone is secure, but current events could hamper the country's growth, income and development, which is why CC-DB has prepared more than 20 measures to help in this situation. These include private hospitals holding tenders for the resources they use from the National Health Insurance Fund, civil servants paying their own insurance contributions and clear caps on bonuses in the administration.