Employees will have no privileges whatsoever in the privatization of the state-owned enterprises where they work, according to the draft of a new Privatization Act, which was presented by Economy Minister Nikolai Vassilev last Thursday. In the present law, 20 per cent of the assets, subject to privatization, are set aside for sale to employees on preferential terms and at lower prices.

"The goals of the new law will be to ensure transparent, fast and cost-effective privatization," Vassilev said. Only the Privatization Agency (PA) will have the power to sell the state-owned companies. The Centre of Mass Privatization will have to finish voucher privatization soon and will be closed down. The Ministry of Economy is working out a strategy for the sale of state-owned assets payable with non-cash instruments: compensatory and investment vouchers and notes, the minister explained.

Under the new law, five per cent of privatization proceeds will go into the High Technologies Development Fund, 10 per cent will offset the costs of sale, and 85 per cent will go to the budget. Presently, 90 per cent are put into the budget and 10 per cent are set aside for privatization costs.

No single party will command a majority on the Supervisory Board of the PA, said Vassilev. The board will have 10 days to pronounce on the decisions of the PA executive management, and it will be able to rule on the legal conformity only and not on the expedience of privatization transactions, he added.

Information on privatization will be made public, largely through publishing on the Internet. State-owned companies will be sold mainly through auction or competitive tender, and there will be no negotiations with potential buyers, said Vassilev. The PA will have two independent executive directors. One, Apostol Apostolov, will handle the privatization itself, and the other, who has yet to be appointed, will be in charge of post-privatization control.

Meanwhile on Friday, it was revealed that the number of privatization deals that were being and will be checked exceeded 200. Balkan Airlines, and Plama and Neftochim refineries topped the list, said Peter Petkov, head of the Organized Crime and Corruption Department in the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office (SCPO).

On September 20, Prosecutor General Nikola Filchev said that about 100 privatization deals would be checked. "Since then, the Privatization Agency has provided us with information about dozens of cases of illegal privatization, which will be checked," Petkov said.

"First on the list are deals of major public interest about which there have been serious tip-offs of wrongdoing," announced the deputy prosecutor general Hristo Manchev. He declined to reveal whether the list included Bulbank.

"Charges will be pressed against more people soon," Petkov said, but did not reveal any names. The prosecution is expecting information from the National Audit Office about charges on embezzlement, added Petkov. On September 20, Filchev said that 360 cases of embezzlement were being checked.

On Friday, the former deputy prime minister and industry minister in the government of the United Democratic Forces, Alexander Bozhkov, and his lawyer, visited the chief prosecutor's office. According to unofficial sources, new charges have been levelled against Bozhkov, this time for the signing of compensatory notes. Bozhkov neither denied nor confirmed the information, justifying his silence with a promise he made to the prosecution authority not to talk.

Two weeks ago, Bozhkov was charged with mismanagement in the sale of a workshop in the village of Tsalapitsa, near Plovdiv. He was released on a bond for 10,000 leva.

Bozhkov said that he has signed several thousand documents for privatization, restitution, and sale of facilities in liquidation and insolvency and if just one per cent of these should be challenged, this means several dozen cases.

"This is why it is normal to be summoned in the prosecution authority for explanations," Bozhkov said.

The new act must be reviewed by several parliamentary committees and then be passed by Parliament to come into force.