Top executives of the Interior Ministry have taken unpaid leave until September after the caretaker government was appointed told bTV caretaker Minister of Interior Boyko Rashkov. In his words, the employees on leave are "too many."

"Do you know how many security officials got sick when the caretaker cabinet took office? Are you aware that the security services in our country are on unpaid leave until September. He asks himself: Who allowed them to take this leave? (...) The Regional Director of Plovdiv said that all senior officials in the security system in Bulgaria are currently on unpaid leave. And who authorized them, given that they are directly subordinate tothe Prime Minister? Not the incumbent but the former one. I leave it to your viewers to answer for themselves. The state is currently has no security services. These services have beheaded themselves," Rashkov said.

He added that people on key positions in the system were appointed by the previous government.

Rashkov rejected accusations that the dismissals at the Interior Ministry were a purge and said he was not aware that one of the persons removed from office, Boyko Slavchev, was a witness in the affair with SUVs the ministry bought from older stocks instead of new all-terrain police cars involving President‘s Secretary Plamen Uzunov.

"As far as I know this case is currently at a stand still, deposited at the prosecutor's office for political reasons. It could be closed very quickly, but it is not done. The goal is political," the caretaker interior minister said.

"The Bulgarian electorate wants a change and people will see it. This change cannot be implemented without a replacement of top figures in individual ministries," he added.

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