Friday night proved the perfect time for the Government to make its latest outrageous appointment, preceded by special regulatory amendments. Towards the end of the working day and on the eve of summer recess, Yunal Tassim, the man who caused one of the scandals that shook the Triple Coalition during its 2005-2009 term in office, was appointed Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy.
The ex-MP is the fifth Deputy of Minister of Economy Dragomir Stoynev. As noted by OffNews, he was the reason for amending the statutes of the Ministry of Economy and Energy, which stipulates four deputy ministers only.
In early 2009 a report submitted by then Vice Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva to the parliamentary Anti-corruption Committee concerning the company Technostroy Engineering 99, in which MPs Stoyan Prodanov (BSP) and Yunal Tassim (MRF) are partners, caused some consternation among Committee members. Plugchieva pointed to possible conflict of interest in connection with a public procurement contract awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food for a farm road construction project.
[The electronic edition presents an outline of the 2009 case]
Yunal Tassim became a media star on March 5th, 2009, towards the end of the term in office of the Triple Coalition. At that time, then Vice Prime Minister in charge of European funds, Meglena Plugchieva, did something unprecedented in Bulgarian political life – she accused her coalition partner Yunal Tassim and fellow party member Stoyan Prodanov of embezzlement of European funds and filed a report against them with the parliamentary anti-corruption committee.
While the two were serving as MPs they won three public procurement contracts of an estimated value exceeding BGN 1.6 million. This was done through the Bild Consult consortium. The latter includes the company Bild Consult, in which Yunal Tassim is majority owner with 70%, and Technostroy Engineering 99, in which Stoyan Prodanov is a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors. Soon after the Triple Coalition took office, Technostroy Engineering 99 won another public procurement contract to the value of BGN 34 m.
The joint consortium of the two coalition partners won two contracts under the Regional Development Program. One of the tenders took place in Kurdjali Municipality, and the other was conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture. Six companies took part in each of the tenders. None of the two, however, was awarded to the company that bid the lowest price.
At the time, one of the MPs – Stoyan Prodanov – was a member of the parliamentary Agriculture Committee, and Yunal Tassim was the Committee Deputy Chairman.
When the scandal broke out both MPs denied any conflict of interest and claimed their close acquaintance with Minister of Agriculture Valeri Tsvetanov was irrelevant to the matter. Tsvetanov was appointed from the MRF quota and according to the unofficial distribution of sector responsibility within the MRF, this particular ministry fell within Tassim’s area of responsibility and he had a decisive influence in the appointment of Tsvetanov after Nihat Kabil had been discredited.
Shortly after Plugchieva submitted her report, Parliament dissolved itself. There are no records in its archives that the Anti-corruption Committee ever pronounced itself on the case involving Tassim and Prodanov. The matter was covered up at a far lower level. An official opinion was issued by the managing body of the operational program. The decision was strange. It was established that MPs Tassim and Prodanov, who had won one of the road-repair tender lots, were not in conflict of interest, but Municipal Council member Leila Arif, on the other hand, was involved in a conflict of interest. Arif preferred to leave the Municipal Council and keep the contract.
Even though the official Council of Ministers press release did not state which sector Yunal Tassim would be responsible for at the Ministry, according to Mediapool, he is to take over the OP Competitiveness. The notoriously problem-ridden OP concentrates about BGN 2 billion intended for Bulgarian business.
Yunal Tassim was Deputy Chairman of the Agriculture Committee with the former Parliament.
