Bulgaria Minister Exposes Corruption Scheme with Hearing Aid Devices

Bulgaria's Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, exposed Sunday a staggering corruption scheme with hearing aid devices of the former administration of the Labor Ministry.

Djankov said the Ministry bought hearing aids from a Bulgarian firm for BGN 408 each. Upon inspection it turned out that the firm had imported the devices from China for the price of USD 5,50, or about BGN 8 each.

The devices were presented as digital, whereas they turned out to be “just trash”, in the words of Minister Djankov.

In an interview for Nova TV Sunday night, Djankov said he had collected all documents about the notorious secret deal between his predecessor Plamen Oresharski and the Bulgarian National Bank for the deposition of money from the fiscal reserve at certain commercial banks, and had given them to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Djankov said the prosecutors were going to going to have a lot of work with those, and that their conclusions were expected on the legality of the deal.

The Finance Minister also announced that he had managed to collect BGN 150 M in dividends from state-owned companies over the last couple of months, and had added the sum to the fiscal reserve of the country.

In his words, Bulgaria’s export in some sectors such as the foodstuff industry, agriculture, and glass manufacturing showed growth in September 2009 not just compared to August but also compared to the same month of 2008.

Djankov made it clear he did not oppose the proposal of several MPs to increase the excise tax on hard liquor including on homemade rakia. He vowed to use the BGN 61 M expected to be raised for medicines and special programs for cancer patients.

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