Bulgaria's Defense Ministry distributed Wednesday an official announcement countering statements of former Defense Minister, Nikolay Tsonev, illegal videotaping and spying never took place during his term.

On Tuesday, Tsonev said he learned from the media about alleged illegal surveillance in hotels and clubs, used by the Ministry, and insisted the hidden devices were installed after July 2009, when he was no longer Minister, and the new cabinet of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party took office.

The Wednesday press release is the first official document regarding the flaring scandal after Bulgarian media published reports of a secret video monitoring center, located in room 222 in the Defense Ministry "Shipka" hotel in Sofia, where a camera was, allegedly, found hidden inside a clock.

On Monday, Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, confirmed t he Military Prosecutor's Office is probing a case involving illegal video surveillance in hotels and clubs in Bulgaria, used by the Defense Ministry, and hinted the responsibility belongs to his predecessor Tsonev.

In their press release, the Defense Ministry point out the first public procurement procedure for the design, delivery and installation of a video-monitoring system in Ministry's facilities was opened with Tsonev's signature on the document.

Six bidders applied, and the winning proposal received a contract in June 2008 while the system was installed in July and August.

At the end of September, when the said contract was still valid, a new public procurement procedure was launched for different facilities and the winning bidder was the same company, which continued to install monitoring devices in October in November, all while Tsonev was Defense Minister.

Tsonev is currently on trial over bribery charges and was acquitted last week in another case  involving charges of abuse of power over a public procurement tender.