Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski has described the ongoing public row surrounding the former head of the National Revenue Agency (NRA), Maria Mourgina, as an attack on Bulgaria's fiscal stability.

In his first media appearance since Mourgina filed her resignation on February 12 2009, Oresharski told private national broadcaster bTV that he had seen no evidence of Mourgina's alleged involvement in VAT schemes for draining money from the state budget worth billions of leva.

Mourgina filed her resignation the day after the State Agency for National Security (SANS) withdrew her access to classified information as part of SANS' investigation into NRA's activity.

So far SANS has not said why Mourgina was stripped of her access but, according to independent MP Yane Yanev, she had personally participated in cover up operations for companies that were draining money from the budget through VAT schemes.

Yanev has not yet presented the public and the media with solid proof but has said that SANS had more then enough evidence for that.

Asked why Mourgina filed her resignation, Oresharski said: "Nothing has been explained to me. Mourgina resigned following accumulated pressure in the NRA. From my information nothing says that she resigned because of VAT schemes."

"This is an attack on Bulgaria's fiscal stability. It is part of pre-election manoeuvrings (Bulgaria is to have its next general election in the summer of 2009). What has been proved so far? In the normal world there is a presumption of innocence," he told bTV.

"You cannot have fiscal stability without a functioning tax authority," he said.

"I want to ask the opposition since when they have had investigative functions and where is the proof they have been talking about. Why are we discussing things that we haven't seen?"

He said that never in his capacity as a minister had he been subject to any pressure to service interests of political parties, "and I don't intend to be in the months I have left as a minster," he said.

In the tri-partite coalition Government Oresharski is the only non-partisan minister.

One of the people who has pointed fingers at Oresharski for not having sufficient control over the work of Mourgina has been Georgi Kadiev, who used to be deputy finance minister for two years before resigning, citing differences with Oresharski.

Kadiev, who is currently a Sofia municipal councillor from the quota of the senior partner in the ruling coalition, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, even predicted that Oresharski would resign as a result of the row surrounding Mourgina.

"Kadiev is not the person who can ask for my resignation. He was with the ministry for two years. This was his first experience working for the state administration and he could not understand how things operate. He did not do a good job in his post," Oresharski told bTV.
Oresharski said that the information presented by Yanev that Mourgina had shut down the internal audit bodies of the NRA was incorrect.

"Restructuring does not mean closing bodies down. Not a single employee of the audit bodies has been dismissed as a result of this restructuring," he said.

"I stand behind all of my experts unless I am presented with solid proof of their guilt," he said.