site.btaUPDATED Prime Minister Gurov Proposes Withdrawal of EUR 1.4 Billion from Bulgarian Development Bank

At the start of the regular government meeting on Wednesday, caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov proposed that EUR 1.4 billion be withdrawn from the "Borissov-Peevski model piggy bank", the Bulgarian Development Bank. 

He said that last year, before the protests ousted the Rosen Zhelyazkov government, it took on a record amount of debt and "locked away" part of those funds in a bank with "long fingers and a short memory". The bank that hands out huge loans and forgets to collect them. "For eight months, EUR 1.4 billion have been locked away in this piggy bank, gathering dust, not moving, not entering the economy, but at the same time, interest is accruing on this debt, money that all citizens pay from their taxes," Gurov said.

Gurov said that when billions of euros sit "in the dark" with no purpose, they very quickly become a temptation, a fast track to large loans, a piggy bank that is used to save political careers. Bulgarian citizens have seen this before, they rallied against it, Gurov said. In his words, the proposal is a chance and an opportunity to withdraw these funds from the Bulgarian Development Bank before they end up in someone’s pockets, before they turn into uncollectible loans. "We will give them back to taxpayers in the form of more modern hospitals, medical helicopters, science labs in schools, and modern nursing homes," Gurov said. He assured that the caretaker government will not spend these funds; they affect neither revenue nor the deficit. "We are simply giving the next cabinet the opportunity to decide how to use them." Gurov said he hoped that this would be done transparently, for everyone to see, just as his cabinet has done with all decisions taken.

Regarding the early parliamentary elections on April 19, Gurov said that, according to all assessments by external observers, institutions, and citizens, they were among the fairest elections in Bulgaria's recent history. This, in Gurov’s words, is a collective achievement of the entire government. Gurov thanked the ministers for their tireless work and for everything they had done to make this possible. Many of the issues related to good governance are still awaiting solutions, he added.