Bulgaria's Interior Ministry is in talks with 100% state-owned companies for donations which would allow it to buy equipment, according to a Friday announcement of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

The statement was made in response to a question of left-wing MP Petar Kurumbashev regarding a contract for the donation of 236 Opel Astra vehicles to the Interior Ministry which violates the Public Procurement Act.

According to the MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), within six months, the Interior managed to seal a total of 1938 donation contracts, receiving an almost five times bigger sum than all of the other ministries taken together.

The Interior Minister explained that the case involved a deal for supplies for 2004 and 2007 and the contract he had signed, which would be promptly uploaded on the Interior's website, was only about the finalization of the deal.

Media publications revealed that the Interior Ministry had received the cars as a donation from its own company, Contactless Multiplex Chains, thereby sidestepping the provisions of the Public Procurement Act.

Tsvetanov reminded that, pursuant to an order he issued on September 01, the Interior only accepts donations from municipalities and 100% state-owned companies.

The step came in response to criticism from the European Commission, which condemned the corrupt donation practice in its report on Bulgaria under the cooperation and verification mechanism, causing Prime Minister Borisov to pledge that the occurrence would be eradicated.

In a subsequent interview, however, Tsvetanov specified that fundraising practices would be phased out gradually, rather than rooted out at once.

Tsvetanov was urgently held to account after Bulgarian Sega daily revealed in August that the Interior had received a total of BGN 15.5 M from fairly suspicious sponsors for the first half of 2011.

In his Friday statement, the Interior Minister pointed out that he had come to side with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov that it was unnecessary for the Interior to seal donation contracts with natural and legal persons.

"We conducted a systematic analysis and we reached the compromise decision to leave the legal opportunity for the Interior to receive contributions from state-owned companies and municipalities", Tsvetanov informed.

Kurumbashev, however, argued that this opportunity left legal loopholes for donations of criminal origin.

Tsvetanov expressed hopes that the economic growth and the reduced unemployment would enable the state to provide the full financing for the Interior Ministry, thereby weaning it off donations.

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