Bulgaria's Interior Chief Secretary Kalin Georgiev may be appointed head of the country's secret police DANS after its director resigned in the wake of an eavesdropping scandal involving top officials, according to reports.

"Kalin Georgiev is the preferred successor of Tsvetlin Yovchev mainly because his career started in 1996 at the National Security Service, which was later transformed into DANS," 24 Hours daily reported, citing insiders.

Georgiev enjoys a very good reputation among the European and American partners of Bulgaria's special services and is expected to be welcomed by them in his new capacity.

Georgiev however refused to comment the reports.

The head of Bulgaria's secret police, which is the equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is nominated by the government and appointed with a presidential decree for a five-year term.

Other likely nominees for the post are Stanimir Florov. Director of the Unit for Combatting Organized Crime (GDBOP), Ivan Drashkov, DANS deputy director, and Ivan Chobanov, former head of the country's counter-intelligence.

State Agency for National Security (DANS) director Tsvetlin Yovchev left his post on Wednesday, saying Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's government did not trust him. Yovchev has headed DANS since 2009.

His resignation follows the leaking last month of material taped by DANS to the public via a weekly magazine, sparking a scandal as it implicates officials, including Borisov, as corrupt.

Borisov dismissed the allegations, saying the tapes were manipulated. Last week a bomb exploded in front of the building housing Galeria, the weekly which launched the tapes, causing damage but no injuries.

Kalin Georgiev was born in 1969 and is a graduate of the Plovdiv University with a major in Russian Language and Literature. He had specialized at the Interior Ministry Academy and the US National FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Georgiev began working at the Interior in 1996 as a secret agent in the "International Terrorist Organizations" department to be later promoted inspector and head of the "Countering of International and Internal Terrorism and Illegal Migration" department.

Georgiev also served as Head of the "Contraband and White Collar Crime" department. In September 2008 he was appointed Chief of the Sofia City "Criminal Police" Directorate.

Georgiev became General Commissar of the Interior in August, 2009 with the appointment of the new cabinet of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party.

At the end of the same year he was nominated for Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry. The nomination became necessary after the post was reinstated under amendments to the Interior Affairs Act. The post was previously held by the current Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

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