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Bulgaria uncertain on extending contract with Crown Agents

Wed, Apr 28 2010 09:34 CET

byNick Iliev

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Bulgaria uncertain on extending contract with Crown Agents

Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov and Prime Minister Boiko Borissov

Photo: Krassimir Yuskesseliev

Bulgaria's Cabinet would decide shortly whether to extend the contract with British consultancy firm Crown Agents, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov said on April 28 2010.

Crown Agents, hired as private advisers to improve Customs Agency practices, was unable to give a specific answer to Prime Minister Boiko Borissov's questions on who were the masterminds that benefited the most from corruption in the customs system, Dyankov said on Nova Televiziya's breakfast talk-show.

Since 2001, Crown Agents has signed four contracts with Bulgaria, the most recent in January 2009 under the previous government, by Dyankov’s predecessor Plamen Oresharski, which expires in June.

Over the years, Crown Agents’ presence in Bulgaria was treated with misgivings by the media and, by extension, the public because the contracts detailing the cost and the exact nature of the services rendered by the consultancy were classified.

The contracts were made public by Dyankov in November 2009. On Nova Televiziya's breakfast show, he said that the services cost taxpayers "dearly" and that there were agents in Bulgaria who could do the same job.

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