Bulgaria’s Parliament terminated the term in office of Stoyan Tonev, MP from center-right ruling party GERB.

The motion was backed by 158 MPs, with 10 votes against and 5 abstentions, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

Tonev, head of the parliamentary health committee and former director of the Sofia-based Military Medical Academy (MMA), resigned Tuesday as Chair of the parliamentary health committee and as MP after talks with Boyko Borisov, Prime Minister and Chair of the parliamentary group of GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria).

In a statement to Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, Tonev said that he had resigned to guarantee the independent investigation by the prosecution and the National Audit Office of the scandal over substantial losses at the MMA during his term in office.

Several days ago, a report of the Defense Ministry indicated that the Clinic of Dermatology at the MMA had brought losses of around BGN 10 M for the hospital during Tonev’s term in office as head of the MMA.

The losses were generated at the expense of the profit of a private company operating at the dermatology unit of the hospital.

The contract between the private firm, Derma Prim, and the MMA, was signed 11 years ago, at the time when Tonev was head of the hospital.

Instead of fetching revenues for the hospital, the partnership with the private company only incurred losses.

The Director of the Clinic of Dermatology at the MMA, Prof. Miroslava Kadurina, controls an 84% stake of Derma Prim.