The government is stopping scandalous public procurements that lead to theft and leaks to party coffers. The waste was enormous, and the irrational planning was everywhere. That is why we are cutting the insane expenses – where they flowed to party coffers and to oligarchs. This is what Prime Minister Rumen Radev wrote on Facebook and continues:
The public procurement for 1 billion leva of crash barriers is at an unrealistic price, so we are stopping it and will review it. The vicious practice from the past of people in the construction industry being pressured to return money from public procurements, which suffers from quality, is also being stopped. From now on, no one will pressure contractors to return money, but we will prosecute them for quality.
The slogan "corruption kills" is well-known and the quality of our roads confirms it. A large-scale inspection of crash barriers is underway, starting with those installed at the accident site on the "Trakia" motorway, as well as the newly manufactured ones. Other technical solutions are also being implemented for greater road safety, and police presence has been increased. The proper design and construction of roads is on the agenda, which is also part of the problems that have been piling up for years.
The scandals with public procurement were not only in the highest class, but also at the middle and low levels, such as the 47 million allocated for cutting branches along the railway tracks. An indicative example at the lowest level is how a company signed a contract to mow the grass on 3 acres of land in the winter for 250,000 leva. And there are hundreds of such examples at various levels.
The most guilty for the current deficit are also the biggest critics of the budget at the moment. It is impossible, with so many expenses incurred and revenues utilized in advance, for the deficit to be sharply reduced from nearly 7.5% to 3%, given that new hidden unpaid invoices are emerging every day. That is why the government is focusing on stopping the scandals, increasing collection rates and limiting unreasonable spending.
All the numbers, accounting manipulations and Excel spreadsheet manipulations that have occurred with public finances will be brought to light. All this is coming to an end, will be extracted and shown in order to know what the real state of finances is at the moment. We are stepping on this solid foundation and I believe that with reasonable policies we will reach a budget with a deficit of up to 3% and even below 3% within the set deadline in the coming years.