Marin Raykov became the Bulgarian Acting Prime Minister in March 2013 (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)Just two percent of companies win 98 percent of all public procurement deals in Bulgaria, according to the head of BORKOR, Bulgaria’s state anti-corruption and organized crime agency.
A report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said BORKOR analyzed deals organized by major state-owned companies.
‘The largest irregularities were found in the energy and railway industries,’ the Sofia News Agency reported.
Bulgaria promised to clean up its corruption problems when the EU admitted it as a member in 2007. But reforms didn’t happen and the EU and others have said graft is getting worse.
Last month, the U.K.’s Independent called Bulgaria’s corrupt politicians ‘a cancer in the union’s body politic that is bound to grow more serious with the passage of time.’
The Independent said,
One of the EU’s strongest propaganda points is that when it expands it has a transformative effect on a new member state, not only electrifying its economy but also purifying its politics and imposing modern values on its society. Bulgaria’s experience proves the claim to be threadbare.
In February 2013, Bulgaria’s government was forced to resign. Mass protests blamed corruption and collusion between officials and energy companies for sky-high utility bills.
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