The Appointment of a New Head of the Road Infrastructure Agency Does Not Comply with the Law, Attorneys Claim
The minister of regional development Desislava Terzieva was proud to announce recently the next ‘expert’ appointment of the cabinet, Stefan Chaikov, as head of the Road Infrastructure Agency. In order to check the signals, we asked several attorneys to inquire about Mr. Chaikov’s participation in private companies and how this complies with Bulgarian laws.
The Facts: Company ‘Tri-Es’ OOD, which Stefan Chaikov is still managing, is not only an active bidder in public tenders from the Agency that he was appointed to, but has been winning tenders every year, and is currently a contractor for ongoing tenders, receiving payments from the Agency.
According to the Law on Roads (which has a priority over the Law on Prevention and Identification of Conflicts of Interest), the above mentioned facts prohibit Chaikov to take the appointment. To serve as Head of the Agency, Chaikov has to sign a declaration that he has no relation with commercial companies which participate in public procurement tenders of the Agency (regardless whether such companies have won or not a tender). The declaration of Mr. Chaikov has not been published, so it is not known whether these facts have been announced in the declaration or not. What is certain is that either way, with his appointment the law has been broken. Attorneys agree that there is only one solution in this case: resignation from the appointment, based on Article 21, par. b3 of the Law on Roads.
This legal opinion will be sent by the Antigovernment Information Service to the Chief Prosecutor’s office. It will also be provided in English to foreign media and European institutions for a review of the case.
(more details in Bulgarian here)
