A report by the State Agency for National Security (SANS) on top-level corruption contained the names of 10 members of the cabinet headed by Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Sergei Stanishev, former SANS employee Alexei Petrov told Bulgarian-language Trud daily on September 3 2009.

In his first interview after he left SANS on September 1 2009, Petrov said that Stanishev - who lost the July 5 2009 elections to Boiko Borissov's party GERB - was handed a report on alleged corruption that included the name of 10 of Stanishev's ministers.

"We did our our job (by compiling the report) and it is up to law enforcement bodies to take action," Petrov told Trud.

"Everyone who has been in power for the past 20 years is corrupt," Petrov said.

Prime Minister Boiko Borissov knew about the report's existence, Petrov said, and noted that Borissov's ministers had started using data from it in their public statements.

On September 3, Stanishev, whose BSP is now the largest opposition party, issued a statement denying knowledge of such a report.

"In his capacity as prime minister, BSP leader Sergei Stanishev has never received a report from SANS with tip-offs about corruption regarding any of his cabinet ministers," the statement said.

However, Ivan Kostov, chairperson of Parliament's committee overseeing the work of SANS, has already requested newly-appointed SANS head Tsvetelin Yovchev to confirm or deny the existence of such a report.

Yovchev was made head of SANS by Borissov a few days after he became Prime Minister. Yovchev replaced Petko Sertov, who had been appointed as head of the agency by Stanishev when SANS was formed in 2008.

Alexei Petrov was an adviser to Sertov and decided to leave SANS as a sign of disagreement with Borissov's view on how the agency should work.

In his Trud interview, Petrov expressed concern that the agency would now take a step backwards in its development.

"In its first-year-and-a-half after it was formed, SANS was developing well, and now I am afraid that it will take a wrong turn under the control of the Drashkov circle," Petrov said.

This was a reference to Ivan Drashkov, who was dismissed as one of Sertov's deputies in October 2008 after a controversy involving his brother's business, and as result of a row about who and why ordered a far-reaching investigation - known as Operation Gallery - into contacts between MPs and journalists.

Now, according to Petrov, Drashkov, who claimed that it was Sertov and not him who ordered the investigation, has regained his position within the agency. On September 2 2009, Yovchev said in Parliament that it was Sertov who ordered the investigation. According to Petrov, however, this was not true.

"When I joined the agency, I had to choose between working with Sertov's people or with Drashkov's. I picked Sertov because I knew little about him. Sertov's priority was to have SANS concentrate on protecting Bulgaria's economy, while Drashkov's people will make it go back to the years of the Cold War," Petrov told Trud.

"If the Prime Minister (Borissov) wants a well organised agency, he should distance himself from Drashkov and his circle of acquaintances," Petrov said.

Petrov said that he was ready to be an opponent to Borissov. "We have been opponents in the past, as athletes for example (both used to be professional karate exponents).

"I am probably the first one who is trying to tell Boiko (Borissov) that he is doing something wrong. I know that by doing this I make a lot of people worry. However, any concern that I would abuse information that I have gathered during my time at SANS is groundless," Petrov told Trud.