One
“The city hall here [in Sofia] has the financial muscle to afford salary increases,” Health Minister Evgeni Zhelev told Bulgarian National Television, commenting on the salaries of nurses in pre-schools. Several nursery schools are closing today because their nurses have resigned.

“In the year that is left on the Cabinet’s mandate, a budget can be formed that could gather 350 to 400 million leva for healthcare, something that is not impossible.” Thus the total sum for the sector could reach five per cent of the GDP, but the fact remained that a system for strong control was needed.

“The [healthcare] system is pretty conservative,” Zhelev said, but it “has stabilised”.

Two
The prosecution is in a very difficult situation because of the controversy surrounding the Interior Ministry. It has to prove that the “wolf is full and the lamb is whole” [ie, you can make an omelette without breaking the eggs], Vanyo Tanov, former head of the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, told private channel bTV. “The prosecution hoped it could shift the responsibility onto SANS (State Agency for National Security),” but SANS tossed back the ball, he said.

For the same cases, SANS had two reports signed by two different people reading opposite things, Tanov said.

“At first SANS had to win some time and to gloss over all parties,” according to Tanov. Later, after it turned out that there were documents, they tried to come up with “something intermediate” that would present the facts, but would still make them look good.

SANS wanted to shift the responsibility to the prosecution, because if investigations were undertaken, they would reach very high levels.

Three
Lybomir Pavlov, leader of Podkrepa labour union at Kremikovtzi steel mill, told bTV that the prosecution was given proof that money had been drained from Kremikovtzi. The mill was drained after Indian businessman Pramot Mittal took over its ownership, Pavlov said.

The Indians working in the mill were presenting invoices for haircuts and underwear to be cashed, Pavlov said. “We are talking about small sums, but after all, the Bulgarians in Kremikovtzi did not receive their salaries.”

According to Pavlov, the championship title of CSKA football club cost Kremikovtzi 20 million euro. This became clear at a managing board summit when the new manager asked CSKA president and former Kremikovtzi managing director Alexander Tomov to return the money.