OLAF) has alleged President’s Anti-Corruption Secretary Plamen Uzunov of corruption.
The investigation refers to a contract concluded by Uzunov on March 23, 2017 for the purchase of police cars with European funds.
At the time, Plamen Uzunov was acting Minister of Interior in a caretaker government appointed by President Rumen Radev and headed by Ognyan Gerdzhikov as caretaker Prime Minister (in office from January to May 2017).
Currently, Plamen Uzunov is President’s secretary on legal affairs and anti-corruption. Uzunov was arrested in July 2020 because of an SMS chat communication with an accused businessman Plamen Bobokov, charged in relation to illegal importing and processing of waste.
Investigators have called for a criminal probe to be opened into officials at Bulgaria s interior ministry for alleged abuse of power .
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) accused it of using EU money to purchase 350 new all-terrain vehicles for the police.
OLAF said Bulgaria had violated the terms of the grant by buying second-hand sport utility vehicles (SUVs) instead.
It called for the European Commission to recover around €5.95 million. The Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior breached the terms of its grant agreement by using EU money to buy SUVs from older stocks instead of new all-terrain police cars, the agency said in a statement.
The Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior breached the terms of a grant agreement by using European Union money to buy SUVs from older stocks instead of new all-terrain police cars, according to an investigation closed recently by OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office, the office said on February 1.
OLAF has recommended the recovery of nearly six million euro in European funds and that criminal proceedings could be considered against officials of the Interior Ministry.
The episode took place at the time that Plamen Uzunov was Interior Minister in the caretaker government appointed by President Roumen Radev and headed by Ognyan Gerdzhikov and that was in office from January to May 2017.