Bulgaria may have to return funding for two projects, paid for under the European Union pre-accession programme Phare, the beneficiary of which was the National Road Infrastructure Fund (NRIF), Deputy Regional Development Minister Savin Kovachev told a news conference on July 15.

Payments on 10 projects funded with Phare money have been frozen recently at the request of the Bulgarian managers of the programme, Kovachev said, as quoted by Focus news agency. The total Phare payments for the projects were 91 million leva.

Concerning the two projects where Bulgaria would have to return the funds, the total amount was 6.8 million euro, Focus said. Some 3.5 million euro was allocated for the construction the second tunnel near the town of Dupnitsa, used by one of the major routes towards Greece. The other 3.3 million euro were for the road between the towns of Gotse Delchev and Razlog, in south-western Bulgaria.

Bulgaria would not lose anything, Kovachev said. It would return the money that has already been used, but a road would remain as if the state had done it with budget money, he said.

Kovachev said that the 10 projects accounted for only three per cent of the NRIF’s budget. At least seven of them would be completed successfully, he added. Within a month, the reasons that led to the moratorium on payments would be eliminated, he said.

Regional Development and Public Works Minister Assen Gagaouzov said that the projects would be funded by the budget. There were another 482 projects under Phare, which had been completed or were being carried out.

All funding under Phare that had been paid out was used as intended, Gagaouzov said. The ministry did not receive a single accusation of corruption from auditors because there were no grounds for that, he said.