Socialist leader and ex-Bulgarian PM Sergey Stanishev claimed Monday that the draft bill for reform of the 2010 state budget has not been duly discussed by the Council of Ministers.

The draft was tabled to Parliament last Friday and is expected to be voted after June 15.

Stanishev said he reviewed the minutes of the last four sittings of the center-right GERB cabinet and found no debates on the topic of budget revision.

This means either secrecy on the part of the government, or lack of involvement on the part of ministers, or self-will on the part of PM Borisov, claimed the opposition leader. According to him, the situation is “unprecedented” and “scandalous”.

The socialist leader chastised the budget reform draft at a sitting of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Executive Bureau in Razgrad, northeastern Bulgaria, saying that his party will vote “no” in Parliament.

According to Stanishev the principal aim of the proposed revisions is to sanction spending from the fiscal reserve, accumulated in part during his term in office as PM (2005-9).

“As a rule, each promise on the part of GERB turns out to be a fraud,”quipped Stanishev.

The socialists opposed in particular cutting funds for local authorities by 15%, which according to them will severely damage social services and lead to the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized municipalities.

In addition, the BSP Executive Bureau member and ex-deputy finance minister Georgi Kadiev stressed that the budget revision proposal is the result of policy incompetence, bad planning and bad management. He vowed that BSP will demand that the finance minister, tax and customs chiefs assume personal responsibility.

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