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SOFIA – Employees of the national police provide assistance and work under the decree of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has assigned various investigative actions, said the Acting Minister of Interior Kalin Stoyanov to journalists on Tuesday regarding the operation started at “Bulgartransgaz”. A check was carried out yesterday by officers of the Main Directorate “National Police” and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in the building of “Bulgartransgaz” in connection with the expansion of the underground gas storage in Chiren, said the Executive Director of “Bulgartransgaz” Kiril Ravnachki at a briefing to journalists on Wednesday morning.
From the side of “Bulgartransgaz”, full access to information and assistance regarding everything related to the public procurement has been provided, added Ravnachki. Due to the large volume of information, the check in the “Bulgartransgaz” building lasted 10 hours. Given the ongoing check, the company’s executive director said he could not provide more details.
Acting Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov stated that full cooperation would be provided to the law enforcement authorities of Bulgaria and the European Union in order to establish the objective truth. He noted that he welcomes the inspection initiated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, because the public procurement for the expansion of the underground gas storage in the “underground fund” part has already been the subject of an inspection by the State Financial Inspection Agency (ADFI), which was carried out within the current year. The conclusions from ADFI are public and it was found that there are no violations during the initiation, conduct of the procurement, and signing of the contract, and all legal requirements have been met. Malinov announced that he would order the management bodies of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and “Bulgartransgaz” to stop the execution of the contract until the inspection is completed.
Vladimir Malinov urged that the topic should not be politicized and should not be used in the upcoming election campaign.
The project for the expansion of the underground gas storage in Chiren is related to the diversification of natural gas supplies in Bulgaria, he said later on Wednesday during a hearing in the parliamentary Energy Committee regarding the operation of the “National Police” and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in the building of “Bulgartransgaz”. In response to a parliamentary question, Malinov explained that after the public procurement for the expansion of the gas storage was conducted, the participant who ranked first refused to sign the contract. The Public Procurement Law allows a contract to be signed with the participant who ranked second. At that moment, the difference in the proposed price between the two participants was about 10 percent.
So far, an advance payment amounting to 65,055,300 leva has been provided for the project for the expansion of the underground gas storage in Chiren, and it is secured by a bank guarantee, Malinov pointed out.
The underground gas storage (PGH) “Chiren” is intended for the storage of natural gas in order to cover seasonal imbalances in gas consumption and supply. (August 13-14)