Bulgaria New PM Borisov Vows to Curb All Abuse, Budget Leaks

Bulgaria's new Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, who was formally sworn in on Monday, has vowed that his government was taking up a complete audit of all Ministries.

"Every single Ministry is a priority. In time of crisis, we should preserve all investments in education; from that point on we need to come up with BGN 2 B. We need to stop all budget leaks because the deficit that I am have inherited is BGN 2 B. Right now all Ministers are walking around with sheets of paper and pencils in order to figure out the state of their institutions", Borisov told the Nova TV Monday night.

The GERB party leader also pointed out that the government press center had a staff of 25 people, whereas he had only 2 press officers as the Mayor of Sofia.

Borisov made it clear he would not engage in political witch hunting but that he would do everything possible in order to curb all violations and take all those responsible to justice.

"Regarding the Belene Nuclear Power Plant - we are talking about billions of BGN here, this is not a fruit and vegetables market, this is people's money, and we are going to make a decision on that. I am not going to let anyone make money at the expense of Bulgaria, and at the expense of the environment", the new Prime Minister vowed.

He pointed out that it was unacceptable to see other energy companies make huge profits while the state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding was about to go bankrupt, and made it clear that the job of his Finance Minister Simeon Djankov was to say "no".

Borisov went on to thank the leaders of the three minor right-wing parties who supported his government on Monday - Ivan Kostov and Martin Dimitrov (Blue Coalition), Yane Yanev (RZS), and Volen Siderov ("Ataka") - saying they helped him remove the former three-way coalition from power.

He also thanked the European Commission for the 21 steps that it recommended to Bulgaria in the July 22 progress report.