Audit at Bulgarian Development Bank Starts by the End of the Week
NW 19:00:31 17-05-2021
LN1925NW.121
121 ECONOMY - BULGARIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK - INSPECTION
Audit at Bulgarian Development
Bank Starts
by the End of the Week
Sofia, May 17 (BTA) - An audit of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) begins by the end of the week, the Ministry of Economy said on Monday. It will be done by a special commission for Transparency and Control of Public Funds.
BDB has been in the focus of public attention for a second day after Economy Minister Kiril Petkov said in a TV interview that he was shocked to find that it had extended close to 1 billion leva in loans to only eight companies, of which four appear to be connected. He said that was gravely at odds with the BDB mission which is to support small and medium-sized companies.
The commission for transparency will be checking if BDB has been following the established lending procedures as per the Bulgarian Development Bank Act and the BDB Articles of Association. It will be looking into all loans of over 1 million leva.
The Economy Ministry also put out a list of the eight largest BDB beneficiaries, which it said was done to satisfy the public interest. It includes three companies which have received over 140 million leva loans each: the Sunny Day resort and the Blagoevgrad BT cigarette company, both of which are reportedly linked to former MP-business owner Delyan Peevski, and Roadway Construction which is linked by press stories to Roumen "The Wolf" Gaytanski. Loans between 115 million and 140 million leva have been provided to Market Investment (Technomarket) and International Investments (again reportedly linked to Peevski). Loans between 60 million and 115 million have been provided to each of three companies: Navigation Maritime Bulgare (owned by Kiril and Georgi Domouschiev), Transpekt (owned by Peter Gospodinov and Georgi Atanassov) and Insa Oil (Georgi Samouilov).
A statement by BDB that was received by BTA on Monday, says that the Bank will provide full assistance to the Economy Ministry in the upcoming audit. It says that its priorities as a lender were in line with the policy of the governments at the time, as well as with the pursuit of profit as a commercial bank, while fulfilling its main function of supporting small and mid-sized enterprises.
The bank is not a budget-financed enterprise and uses budget financing for specific purposes only, such as loan security programmes during the coronavirus crisis, and loans are financed mainly with the Bank's own resources acquired through commercial activities, as well as those provided under contracts with many leading international lending institutions, said BDB. RI/DT
//
LN1925NW.121
121 ECONOMY - BULGARIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK - INSPECTION
Audit at Bulgarian Development
Bank Starts
by the End of the Week
Sofia, May 17 (BTA) - An audit of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) begins by the end of the week, the Ministry of Economy said on Monday. It will be done by a special commission for Transparency and Control of Public Funds.
BDB has been in the focus of public attention for a second day after Economy Minister Kiril Petkov said in a TV interview that he was shocked to find that it had extended close to 1 billion leva in loans to only eight companies, of which four appear to be connected. He said that was gravely at odds with the BDB mission which is to support small and medium-sized companies.
The commission for transparency will be checking if BDB has been following the established lending procedures as per the Bulgarian Development Bank Act and the BDB Articles of Association. It will be looking into all loans of over 1 million leva.
The Economy Ministry also put out a list of the eight largest BDB beneficiaries, which it said was done to satisfy the public interest. It includes three companies which have received over 140 million leva loans each: the Sunny Day resort and the Blagoevgrad BT cigarette company, both of which are reportedly linked to former MP-business owner Delyan Peevski, and Roadway Construction which is linked by press stories to Roumen "The Wolf" Gaytanski. Loans between 115 million and 140 million leva have been provided to Market Investment (Technomarket) and International Investments (again reportedly linked to Peevski). Loans between 60 million and 115 million have been provided to each of three companies: Navigation Maritime Bulgare (owned by Kiril and Georgi Domouschiev), Transpekt (owned by Peter Gospodinov and Georgi Atanassov) and Insa Oil (Georgi Samouilov).
A statement by BDB that was received by BTA on Monday, says that the Bank will provide full assistance to the Economy Ministry in the upcoming audit. It says that its priorities as a lender were in line with the policy of the governments at the time, as well as with the pursuit of profit as a commercial bank, while fulfilling its main function of supporting small and mid-sized enterprises.
The bank is not a budget-financed enterprise and uses budget financing for specific purposes only, such as loan security programmes during the coronavirus crisis, and loans are financed mainly with the Bank's own resources acquired through commercial activities, as well as those provided under contracts with many leading international lending institutions, said BDB. RI/DT
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