Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Valeri Tzvetanov said Monday he was going to fire any officials of the SAPARD Executive Agency who were responsible for the violations leading to the freezing of BGN 183 M last week.

Tzvetanov explained, however, that Dimitar Tadarakov, the Director of the Agency, also known as the State Agriculture Fund, could not be held responsible because the violations were made five or six years ago, when he had not become a director yet.

According to the Agriculture Minister, some of the officials of the State Agriculture Fund had approved for funding certain projects, which did not meet the program criteria.

"One of the systematic violations is that the some of the submitted offers do not meet the actual requirements for the offers", Tzvetanov said adding that apart from the dismissals, the other measures to tackle the problems at the Executive Agency would be announced after July 15.

The Minister also announced that the working group appointed by him to rectify the issues for the absorption of SAPARD funds would leave for Brussels on Tuesday, July 1, in order to discuss the matters with representatives of the European Commission.

The working group includes the Director of the Executive Agency Dimitar Tadarakov, his deputy Vladimir Kamishev, the head of the Development of Rural Areas Directorate at the Ministry Miroslava Georgieva, and representatives of other relevant institutions.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!