Audit Finds Sofia Airport Grants Free Business VIP Passes

Business | December 22, 2009, Tuesday // 09:01
Bulgaria: Audit Finds Sofia Airport Grants Free Business VIP Passes Some 30% of business travelers evaded paying VIP fees at Sofia Airport in the last three years. Photo by BGNES

Sofia Airport lost BGN 2,2 M in 2006-2009 from uncollected fees of passengers going through the so called “Business VIP” terminal.

28% or 19 129 out of a total of 68 518 of the business VIPs who passed through the terminal in January 2006-May 2009 failed to pay the EUR 60 fee, according an audit of the Public Finance Inspection Agency cited by the Trud Daily.

16 employees of the Sofia Airport are responsible for not collecting the respective fees including the head of VIP department, Boris Popov, and the Director of the airport, Plamen Stanchev, who has not exerted sufficient control, the Agency believes.

The inspection was carried out at the request of the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office. The passengers going through the VIP A terminal, known also as the governmental VIP, pay no fee, but the EUR 60 fee for business travelers going through the VIP B terminal has been in place since 2003.

The airport employees at VIP B, however, have failed to register the names, ID information, and company names of over 19 000 businesspeople.

The auditors believe the omissions were intentional. According to the explanation provided by the Airport officials, in many of the cases, state delegations and guests actually went through the business VIP terminal, and the Bulgarian Ministries failed to provide their details. Yet, the auditors believe that that is no excuse for not collecting the fee.

The inspectors requested written explanations from the airport director, Plamen Stanchev, who is reported to have given unfaithful answers to four out of six questions. The head of the VIP department, Boris Popov, explained he had been giving oral permissions for letting people through the business VIP terminal without paying fees.

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Tags: Sofia Airport, audit, VIP, Plamen Stanchev, fees

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