site.btaAgriculture Minister Hristanov: We Will Depoliticize the Forestry Sector

Caretaker Minister of Agriculture and Food Ivan Hristanov said on Wednesday that he had ordered an analysis of staffing capacity and personnel decisions in the forestry sector over the past three years after reports of electoral hiring.

He spoke to journalists while attending the 12th National Meeting of Agricultural Producers.

Hristanov said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food receives dozens of daily reports about politically motivated, election-related hiring in specific parts of the sector, including state forestry enterprises and companies, as well as hunting enterprises. He noted that staffing changes were made just days ago, primarily to turn these entities into electoral “banks”. He added that it was still unclear how many such hires had been made, but the results would be released once the analysis was complete.

“We will not allow this. We cannot show favoritism toward any political force, so we will do everything possible to depoliticize the sector,” Hristanov said. He added that the caretaker cabinet has one fundamental role: to remain depoliticized and to depoliticize the administration.