Bulgaria's State Agriculture Fund Wants More Info over Frozen SAPARD Payments

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | March 9, 2008, Sunday // 00:00
Bulgaria: Bulgaria's State Agriculture Fund Wants More Info over Frozen SAPARD Payments Dimitar Tadarakov (R), Bulgarian State Agriculture Fund CEO, convened a special press conference over the suspended payments under SAPARD pre-accession program. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency)

Bulgaria's State Agriculture Fund head Dimitar Tadarakov said he is going to ask for additional information over the suspended payments under SAPARD pre-accession program.

"The letter of Jean-Luc Demarty, Director of the EC Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate, does not make clear the problems that led to the suspension of the payments for Bulgaria under the SAPARD Program, Measure 2 - improving the processing and marketing of agricultural and fish products," Dimitar Tadarakov, Bulgarian State Agriculture Fund CEO, said at a press conference on Sunday, as cited by the Bulgarian News Agency BTA.

He said he is going to ask for additional information about the steps that should be taken during his meetings with representatives of the European Commission at the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday.

More than 340 projects that applied for funding under the SAPARD Program, Measure 2, have been approved so far and a total of BGN 239 M has been already granted for 247 of them.

Another 47 projects, worth BGN 88 M, have been declared void or suspended.

He explained that the measure was motivated by a case from 2006, which was being investigated by the European Anti-Fraud Unit (OLAF). The case included the purchase of second-hand agricultural machinery, which was then declared as new before the EU funding institutions.

According to him during OLAF check into SAPARD program, which was conducted from October 9-12, the Bulgarian authorities fully cooperated and provided all the information needed by the inspectors.

"I want to declare that the SAPARD system is in place and working professionally. If that was not the case, European auditors would have detected the flaws and pointed them out to us," Tadarakov said March 8 in an interview for Darik radio.

Bulgarian Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski confirmed a day earlier that the European Commission had frozen payments for Bulgaria under the SAPARD Program, Measure 2 - improving the processing and marketing of agricultural and fish products. According to him, the payments are worth EUR 100 M.

EC representatives are scheduled to visit Bulgaria in order to observe SAPARD program execution at the end of March or the beginning of April.

So far the EC has frozen the Bulgaria's funding under the two other pre-accession programs PHARE and ISPA, and over EUR 217 M under the Regional Development Program.

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