The game of shifting the blame for the snow blockade in the country continued on January 9, when Disaster Management Minister Emel Etem appeared live for the first time in the new year in the studio of Bulgaria's bTV.

Etem said "we are not an agency for clearing snow and that responsibility should not be shifted to us". The Disaster Management Ministry was "only responsible for the coordination between mayors and regional managers," mediapool.bg quoted Etem as saying. According to Etem, the "government had not been caught by surprise by the snow, because there had been preliminary warnings to prepare for the winter," mediapool.bg quoted her as saying.

Only a day earlier, Regional Development Minister Asen Gagaouzov admitted "a few mistakes" in regions which had been worst hit by the winter. Meanwhile the National Road Infrastructure Fund in turn, spoke about a developing "heroism" in dealing with the crisis, mediapool.bg said.

"I would like to remind you that the responsibility for any appearing crisis on the territory of a municipality lies with the mayor of the municipality in question. When the crisis extends beyond the borders of the municipality, or several municipalities within a region, then the regional manager takes responsibility for the coordination," Etem said on bTV.

The incumbent Disaster Management Minister, who, during her mandate, has refused to accept responsibility for any disaster that happened, explained that the Disaster Management Ministry has only two responsibilities. The first responsibility was in preventive politics, which included publishing instructions, sending letters to institutions and teaching staff. The second responsibility was rescue services in the form of the ministerial rescue services.

In the spirit of its ministerial responsibilities, Etam had her employees send letters to the media with announcements to the public that it was "slippery outside, people should be careful when they go out in the streets and if it could be avoided, to not leave their homes," mediapool.bg said.

On November 7 2007, the Disaster Management Ministry sent out an instruction to municipalities and regional management that they should prepare for the winter. Return information received, notified the ministry that regional management and municipalities were ready for the winter, Etem said on bTV.

According to Etem, thanks to the work of the employees of her ministry, there had not been a single fatality during the winter hardship. She either had not heard, or it did not matter to her, that the number of people who died this winter because of the cold or in accidents was almost 10, mediapool.bg said.