Bulgaria's ruling party GERB has kicked out Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism Traicho Traikov and Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov.

Late Thursday night a sitting of the party leadership called up by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov accepted the resignations that both Traikov and Konstantinov submitted to the PM minutes earlier.

Traikov's resignation comes a day after Qatar businessmen failed to show up at a much publicized in Bulgaria bilateral business forum in Doha. However, it is still unclear if that is what prompted his resignation.

Konstantinov is the third Health Minister in the GERB cabinet to call it quits. The former Health Minister was recently warned by PM Boyko Borisov that he will be axed over his failure to react quickly enough to increased medication prices. He will be most likely replaced by a manager, and not another physician.

The scandal around the Minister flared after it emerged that National Health Insurance Fund had paid BGN 6 M more for medications in 2011, compared to 2010, when the signing of the contracts was under the authority of the Health Ministry. Some of the medications had a price that skyrocketed 10 or more times in 2011.

Konstantinov insists he did not know about the above issue and was guilty only of overly trusting his now-dismissed Deputy, Gergana Pavlova, who was in charge of the medication policy of the institution.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!