Bulgarian Press Review, April 6, 2010

Press Review

Sofia, April 6 (BTA)



HEALTH CARE

Hospitals will fall into three categories, “Troud” writes, quoting amendments to the Treatment Facilities Act. This will stop the siphoning of funds as patients go from one doctor to another because when the law is amended, they will promptly see the specialist they need. The third level of competence will comprise high-tech hospitals performing state-of-the-art surgery. Those hospitals will sign contracts with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for all clinical pathways. The former regional hospitals will make up the second level of competence. All other hospitals, e.g. municipal ones, will form the first level. They will sign contracts for one to three clinical pathways, depending on the available specialists and equipment.
“Troud” also says that a National Health Map will be introduced. It will show the hospitals which meet people’s needs and which alone will be financed by the NHIF. The rest will treat fee-paying patients.
“24 Chassa” reports that the National Revenue Agency admitted that errors in the health insurance database caused Bulgarians studying abroad to lose their entitlement to subsidized health care for the time when the State was supposed to pay their contributions. People who worked abroad have complained that although they filed declarations, they still owed contributions. To mend the situation, people have to go to a National Revenue Agency office with the relevant documents.
Figures for 2009 quoted in “Sega” show that money is siphoned from the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) through long-term sickness benefits. Their amount increased by 45.9 per cent from 2008 to 773.6 million leva. The largest amount, up 26 per cent from 2008, was spent on benefits for general disease, looking after an ill person and non-work injuries. All this despite the fall in sickness reports by about 36,000. Trade union representatives explain that hard-up employers force employees to take sick leave, for which they are paid benefits by the NSSI instead of wages.
“Standart News” says medicines in Bulgaria are way more expensive than in the neigbouring countries, and some Bulgarians have been making special trips to the chemist’s shops of the other Balkan countries.
Anna Maria Borissova, Chair of the Bulgarian Society of Endocrinology, has been tipped as the new health minister, “24 Chassa” and “Dnevnik” say.

HOME SCENE

Deputy Environment Minister Evdokia Maneva says in a "Troud" interview that in 2010 Bulgaria can trade up to 40 million emission units of its greenhouse gas allowance. At 9 to 11 euro per unit, this will yield 400 million euro at the most.

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Deputy Transport Minister Ivailo Moskovski says in “Sega” that construction of the Trakia Motorway stretch between Stara Zagora and Nova Zagora cannot start before the autumn. The project will cost 138 million leva and the contract was won by Bulgarian consortium Magistrala Thrace. Financing will become available from Operational Programme Transport. Moskovski’s statement is at odds with a statement by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development Georgi Pregyov, who promised that construction would start in May. The problem is that the European Commission needs six months to approve the application form for the road section, and it has not been sent to Brussels yet. The delay will likely push up the price of the project as Magistrala Thrace CEO Nikolai Mihailov warned recently.

In “Klassa” Bozhidar Yotov, Chair of the Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency, says some 60 million euro is needed for repairs of 60 dangerous bridges.

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Political analyst Evgenii Dainov says in “Troud” that if the government starts losing ground, the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) and the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) will not tumble down with it because they showed early and resolutely that they are free of GERB’s ailments: indecision, hesitation, lack of a clear strategy and identity. This is the first time since the UDF split up that the benefits of two right-wing parties are evident: DSB is a stable right-wing, conservative, anti-communist party, while the UDF has the capacity to represent people’s concerns, including Liberal causes, by which it partly makes up for the missing centre in politics. The right-wing parties have a huge experience to share with the government, according to Dainov.
“Monitor” says that the Sofia City Court has struck off 206 ghost parties in the last two years. Proceedings are under way to expunge 13 more parties which do not meet the requirements. Any party which has not run in an election for five years must be struck off. The same applies to parties which have not held congresses or have not submitted financial statements to the Audit Office for more than two years.
THE ECONOMY
Deliberate bankruptcies caused banks to lose 50 million leva last year, “Klassa” says. Companies hide their debts to third parties or defraud creditors through offshore companies. Under the Commercial Code a company manager has one month to declare the company insolvent in court. However, many bankruptcies are moved to a time predating the loan. No manager has been sentenced for failing to meet the one-month deadline to declare the company insolvent.
The new EU members, including Bulgaria, cannot hope for lasting recovery before the second half of 2011, according to a World Bank report on the East European economies quoted in “Dnevnik”. Experts attribute at least half of budget deficit growth in 2007-2009 in the ten countries under review to structural factors, such as unreformed public finances and ineffective spending, and not to recession. However, Bulgaria is the only country in which recession deepened quarterly in 2009, while the crisis bottomed out in the other economies.

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“Telegraph” writes that pawnbrokers charge over 30 per cent interest a month, although the Finance Ministry has set a 3 per cent cap. Breaking the rules, pawnbrokers charge all kinds of loan issue and management fees. Thus the annual interest on a loan may reach 400 per cent.

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“Klassa” has commissioned a Gallup International poll, which shows that 17 per cent of Bulgarians spend an average of one hour a day in social networks. They are 40 per cent of the active Internet users.
JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
A bribe which was to be paid to scupper the investigation against former defence minister Nikolai Tsonev was agreed at six meetings between him and investigator Petyo Petrov, who blew the whistle on Tsonev, “24 Chassa” learned from investigators.
Presumably the meetings were videoed and documented by the special services. Acting through Sofia City Court judge Peter Santirov and former Finance Ministry chief secretary Tencho Popov, Tsonev offered a 60,000 euro bribe to stop the collection
of evidence against himself. There is compelling evidence that Popov was arrested in his wife’s notarial office seconds after he gave 20,000 euro to the investigator Petyo Petrov, “Troud” says.

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High-profile lawyer Daniela Dokovska writes in “Troud’ that questioning is the only way to collect evidence from a defendant; any stratagems intended to skirt the law and elicit evidence through eavesdropping betray procedural ignorance and an inability to investigate by lawful means, she argues. Using special surveillance means is too expensive. It also sets a trap and investigators are the first to fall into it as the persons under surveillance say what they want to say or seize the opportunity to say what they think of the power holders.
Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:

http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
http://www.novinite.com/index.php
http://www.focus-fen.net/


Most discussed topics of the day – April 6, 2010


· Bulgaria hopes to find a strategic investor for the Belene Nuclear Power Plant very shortly, Economy Minister Traicho Traikov has stated during his working visit to the USA.“The construction of the Belene NPP might start in 2011 if it is possible to execute all planned tasks,” declared Traikov after he presented Bulgaria’s investment potential at a forum organized by the US Atlantic Council, as cited by the Russian agency ITAR-TASS.Traikov joined the Atlantic Council on April 5 for a Roundtable on Growth, Energy, and Sustainability in Bulgaria and the Region. The Bulgarian Minister has made it clear that the government keeps looking for a new investor and even said he hoped to have more clarity on this issue by the end of April 2010. ITAR-TASS reminds that the Russian government is a major proponent of the Belene project and that it is ready to provide close to EUR 2 B in two years in the form of a loan so that the construction of the second Bulgarian NPP is not delayed any longer. With respect to another Russian-sponsored project in Bulgaria, the South Stream gas transit pipeline, Traikov said it was up to its shareholders to decide when they would form a joint venture for its realization.
· A new Forestry Bill which is being prepared by the the Agriculture and Foods Ministry will provide for the establishment of an indepenent authority to fight illegal logging, Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov said here Tuesday. He was speaking at the opening of the Forest Week 2010. Agriculture Minister Naydenov commented that his predecessor Valeri Tsvetanov, former SFA chief Stefan Youroukov, as well as the whole previous government are also responsible for illegal swap of woodland from the state land stock with private land. Such swaps - usually under-priced - frequently preceded a change in the purpose of the land and start of development projects.Naydenov believes that the purpose of use of swapped land should be based on market price levels and that whereever possible, the swaps should be cancelled.
· Aleydin Aliev, a.k.a. Alcho, who is suspected to be a leader of a criminal group in the northern city of Lovech, enjoyed protection from all political parties that were in power, says Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.
“I would not specify a political party. I can say that Alcho enjoyed the protection of all political parties that were in power in the past 20 years,” the minister said at a press conference after the national meeting of the ministry’s leadership