The municipal administration in the northeastern Bulgarian city of Silistra has had to give up on the convenience of state-issued cell phones.

Silistra's Mayor, Yulian Naydenov, has collected the cell phones used by the public employees in a bid to cut costs at the debt-ridden municipality.

Naydenov told journalists that Sliven's municipal administration had already run up a bill of BGN 4000-5000 for the current month, which he said were costs that needed trimming.

The mayor vowed that a shortlist of all employees of the Silistra Municipality who really needed taxpayer-funded cell phones would be made after the New Year holidays.

Online news portal dnevnik.bg reminds that Naydenov, who won the end-October local elections as a nominee of center-right ruling party GERB, will have to resort to other unpopular measures to deal with a deficit of over BGN 14 M.

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