site.btaArtists Protest Delayed Funding

Organizations working in the cultural sector and implementing projects under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture on Thursday, claiming that the sector faces a risk of a liquidity crisis due to blocked financial reporting and delayed payments under procedures administered by the National Culture Fund (NCF).

According to them, as of mid-November, substantial funding has been contracted for cultural activities under the NRRP, but only a small portion of these funds has reached the organisations. They cite data from the Information System for Management and Monitoring, which shows that as of November 14, one of the cultural procedures under the NRRP has around BGN 21 million in contracted grants. Less than 5% of that amount has been disbursed to beneficiaries. Representatives of the independent cultural sector, an informal group of independent artists and organizers of the protest, stated that many projects are already at an advanced stage of implementation, with fulfilled events, commitments made to artists and partners, and accumulated expenses.

They said the problem is that no organization has been granted access to submit an interim report under the NRRP procedures in the cultural sector. The Information System for Management and Monitoring modules for interim reporting remain locked, the project statuses in the system do not match the actual signed contracts and annexes, and the deadlines in the system have not been updated. This makes it practically impossible to input already incurred expenses, submit requests for second or final payments, or plan normal cash flow for the projects. Protest participants note that the deadline for submitting interim payment requests is November 30.

They called on the NCF, the Culture Ministry and the responsible institutions to take urgent measures, including extending deadlines, adhering to administrative timelines, improving communication, and developing a comprehensive strategy for the sector’s development. All demands are listed in an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister, the Culture and Finance Ministers.

Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria MP and member of the parliamentary Committee on Culture and Media Manol Peykov and Union of Bulgarian Chair Actors Hristo Mutafchiev joined the gathering in front of the Culture Ministry. Peykov expressed support for the demands and recalled that several of the issues had already been discussed in the committee at his initiative.

Deputy Culture Minister Georgi Sultanov invited representatives of the protesters to a meeting to discuss the problems. He said that dialogue with each professional guild was necessary so they could present their demands. Those gathered agreed to appoint a negotiating team to meet with representatives of the Culture Ministry.