The latest news of unreasonable (to sat the least) spending of taxpayers’ money by ex-cabinet ministers made me reflect on the possible mindset of former Bulgarian rulers and why they felt like untouchables.

I am referring to the Defence Ministry’s purchase of two black BMWs during the term of minister Nikolai Svinarov in 2001-2005. Both cars were bought second-hand and both were black until, one day, someone, for some unknown reason, decided to spend several thousand leva on repainting them in the - fashionable at the time - "ashes of roses" colour.

Today, both cars look ridiculously ugly, stationed as they are in the Defence Ministry car park. Media speculation has it that the cars were repainted because one of the ministry’s employees wanted to please Svinarov who happened to like this odd colour. Other media commentators even claim that this employee picked this colour because it matched Svinarov’s daughter’s dress who had her prom in 2004.

To any reasonable person this version of the story of the two pink BMWs, as they are now known, sounds absurd. One cannot imagine that a minister would allow himself this luxury of first driving his daughter to her prom in a state-owned car and, secondly, matching the colour of the dress with that of the car. That’s why Svinarov’s denial of the speculation was not unexpected. What was surprising was his claim not to recall ordering, or allowing the purchase of, the two BMWs and their subsequent repainting. Seriously?

Two black BMWs owned by the Defence Ministry get repainted in pink and no one remembers anything? Even the words "pink" and "Defence Ministry" when combined in a sentence are enough to make anyone smile as did Prime Minister Boiko Borissov who suggested some kind of link between the chosen colour and the sexual revolution that had probably occurred at the ministry.      

To me, the answer lies not so much in the sexual revolution but rather in the feeling some people have of being untouchable. These people form a unique group in Bulgarian society. They have been holding public positions in various state bodies, not particularly prominent to the general public perhaps, but high enough to be able to spend money on behalf of the people.

And I am not talking about Svinarov who hopefully has the public to answer to for his actions. I am talking about all kinds of heads of directorates, departments, committees and commissions who for the past 20 years have found a good way to carve themselves a nice niche in state bodies protected by all kinds of laws such as the one that stipulates a long and difficult procedure should someone dare to demand their dismissals.

Lobbies and interest groups have also managed to keep such people in their posts with the power to do whatever they like, even to paint BMWs in pink. New Defence Minister Nikolai Mladenov is right when he says that the two cars are a symbol of the carelessness exhibited by some state officials.