An external audit of the National Road Infrastructure Fund (NRIF) was appointed after recent rows, Prime Minister and chairman of the Supreme Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) Sergei Stanishev announced on January 29.

The aim of the audit is to analyse whether there is a conflict of interest.
Several weeks ago, head of the NRIF Veselin Georgiev was accused of nepotism when Bulgarian weekly Kapital reported how the fund had repeatedly placed orders with a company managed by his brother.

The audit is also to find out whether EU funding had been involved in a corruption case.
On January 24, the director for the department for absorbing European funds, Lyubomir Lilov, and his subordinate Ivan Vladimirov, were arrested on accusations of demanding and accepting bribes.

Stanishev said the Government's reaction to the NRIF scandal would be decided on after the audit, Focus news agency said.

Just before the weekend, the European Commission stopped payments for funding for road infrastructure projects in Bulgaria over the two cases.

On January 27, spokesperson of the European Commission Mark Gray, quoted by BTA and Dnevnik daily, said that European funding for road infrastructure projects for Bulgaria would be frozen "until Bulgaria shows that it can deal with the problems in this area."

Gray said that the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) would investigate the case.