Prime Minister Boiko Borissov sacked the executive director of National Road Infrastructure Agency (NRIA) Yanko Yankov, the Government's press service said on July 31.

The reasons were the "lack of synchronisation and communication with the representatives of the European Commission, exaggerated payments to outside consultants, inadmissible actions concerning NRIA's spending in a time of crisis, the lack of an adequate quality control and management system [...] and the inability to meet meet targets and deadlines."

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily, that there were suspicions that incriminating NRIA paperwork was being destroyed, but that there was no proof to back such claims. Dnevnik said that some unconfirmed reports suggested that police had already searched the NRIA headquarters on July 30.

Yankov will be replaced by Dimitar Ivanov, who was the head of the agency in August-October 2008. He quit his job without disclosing the reasons for his decision, but Bulgarian media speculated that it was over political opposition to his attempts to cancel deals signed by Vesselin Georgiev.

In January 2008, Georgiev was found by the media to be in conflict of interest tover a road construction company run by his brother. In the wake of his sacking, the institution was re-organised and put under the direct control of the prime minister.

Ivanov's appointment stirred some controversy as well, since he has previously worked for a number of major road construction companies that are constantly applying for EU funding under NRIA-run programmes.