Tsvetan Tsvetanov has been the man in charge of the Ministry of the Interior since 2009, which means he's the Top Cop and head of security for Bulgarian (and is also privy to a lot of World and European security matters), so he must have the highest security screening and be devoid of any scandals. In other words be squeaky clean!

The first hint of any wrongdoing was when it was disclosed that Tsvetanov owned six properties and when first asked where the money came from, he immediately had amnesia. After a while and when his memory returned, he remembered that his mother-in law had actually given him the money, but as normal in Bulgaria there were no records to back up his claim and nobody bothered to pursued this. So, his properties and career were safe.

The next controversy for Tsvetanov was in February of this year when Borisov and some of his minister's telephone conversations were taped and the contents were leaked to a newspaper. The dialogue between the ministers was title tattle and of little consequent, but Brisovo's were and involved the likely removal of NRA inspectors from a friend's brewery; also getting another friends- friend a job in the Customs at Sofia airport.

Both these actions if true are a very serious abuse of power by the PM, who first rubbished the tapes as being fakes and then intimating that helping a friend getting a job was not a "hanging offence". So, the normal Borisov logic was applied to the issue. The tapes were then sent to the FBI, and other security agencies around the world for authentication, but so far no news and not a statement from the Top Cop Tsvetanov or a conclusion to the Tapegate affair.

The most recent scandal concerning Tsvetanov was the discloser that over six million leva of donations had been made to the Ministry of the Interior, by private Bulgarian's in return for favours especially from the police. Instead of immediately condemning the donations when confronted with this information, Tsvetanov seemed blas? and said it would gradually be phased out in time. This action means that without actually saying it, Tsvetanov condoned this blatant corruption and bribery in the Ministry of the Interior and was happy for it to continue for the time being. It was only after EU intervention that Borisov said the donations would stop at the end of August.

Now, you don't have to be Einstein to work out who were the main beneficiaries of the money that was kindly donated by those generous Bulgarians!

In any other civilised and democratic country Tsvetanov would have walked after the first indiscretion, but here we are talking about Bulgaria where totalitarianism still continues in the present GERB government, for the benefit of the elite that rule it.

Keith Gregory

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!