Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov hinted on Monday that one of the state agencies might be closed down.

Borisov said this in connection with the series of public procurement procedures, which have been halted recently due to lack of transparency and unclear selection process of contractors.

In an interview for private NOVA TV, the prime minister added that there were more than 20 000 public tenders last year.

Borisov assured that at present inspectorates are checking the controversial tenders and civil servants, who had approved and signed such tenders, will be penalised.

He added that the Commission for Protection of Competition (KZK) had finally demonstrated courage to investigate a possible cartel agreement among fuel retailers.

According to him, there was political will to fight corruption.

Borisov once again commended the authorities for the success in countering contraband, saying that BGN 3 B more have been collected in revenues than had initially been foreseen in the budget.

In his words, the contraband cigarettes were below 8 %.

As regards the relations with the junior coalition partner, the Reformist Bloc (RB), he was firm that Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev and Health Minister Petar Moskov, both from parties constituting RB, will retain their positions.

Borisov said that the presidential candidate of his party, GERB, will become clear in June.

In his words, the bad public image of controversial MP and media mogul Delyan Peevski prevented him to rule together with the opposition Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS).

Borisov had explained this to his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu during the latter's visit to Bulgaria last December.

The then leader of DPS, Lyutvi Mestan, who was later dismissed as chairperson and excluded from the party, had translated between the two prime ministers.

During their meeting, Davutoglu said that he would like to see the two parties rule the country together.

Borisov made it clear back then that as long as Peevski is in the leadership, GERB and DPS could not rule together.

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