Bulgaria’s Customs Agency head, Vanyo Tanov, has stated there was no indication he would lose his job despite recent criticism by the Interior Minister.

“I have not been given any ultimatum. I can be removed from office if the oligarchs manage to have their way. However, with the current prime minister, the oligarchs have slim chances because what PM Borisov has assigned to me is to work against them,” Tanov explained on the bTV channel Tuesday morning.

His comments come after on Monday Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov declared that the Customs Agency was not meeting the government’s expectations, especially with respect to fighting cigarette contraband, and that the border police often had to step in order to do the job of the customs agents.

Customs Agency Director, Gen. Vanyo Tanov, a former head of the unit for fighting organized crime (GDBOP), sought to disprove the allegations that Interior Minister Tsvetanov would get him fired within a month. These claims have recently been put forth by the opposition conservative party RZS.

“I think that the words of the Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetanov have been taken out of context because he would not comment on the work of an agency which is responsible to another ministry,” said Tanov Tuesday pointing out that his institution was part of the Finance Ministry.

He did admit, however, that the customs had to do more as far as the coordination with the Interior Ministry is concerned.

“Fighting contraband is the job of the Interior Ministry. GDBOP is the police service that has to work to smash the smuggling channels,” explained Tanov complaining that his agency was spending huge amounts of money on inspections of marketplaces, houses, etc around the country, while the problem was that before that the contraband cigarettes went through Bulgaria’s internal EU borders.

Tanov believes that investigations can lead to the organizers of the cigarette smuggling channels but that this is not up to his institution.

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