The moratorium on payments under SAPARD pre-accession aid programme for Bulgaria, specifically for the upgrade of processing facilities, will stay in place until May 15, when the European Anti Fraud Office (OLAF) is expected to complete its probe, it emerged on March 11.

Bulgaria was not the only country where SAPARD irregularities have been found, with Romania and other European Union member states also having their funded frozen at times, Kay Mortensen, from the European Commission’s directorate-general for agriculture and rural development, said.

The moratorium was a preventive measure to give OLAF enough time to conclude its investigation, he told reporters at a news conference in Sofia, held jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Supply.

Although payments have been temporarily frozen, no company that has met its obligations in full would receive less funding than it was supposed to, deputy finance minister Dimitur Ivanovski, who is also SAPARD co-ordinator in Bulgaria, told the same new conference.

EC expected re-assurances from Bulgarian authorities that the implementation of the SAPARD programme was in line with European legislation, Mortensen said. However, there was no evidence that pointed out that the funds would be withdrawn altogether, he added.

No specific cases of violation of SAPARD rules were discussed behind closed doors with representatives of the finance and agriculture ministries, as well as the State Fund Agriculture, Mortensen said.

OLAF investigated three Bulgarian food processing firms in 2006 on allegations that they bought second-hand equipment, but registered it as new, prompting Bulgarian media to speculate that was the cause of the moratorium.

OLAF's investigation involved local firms Elpin Trade, Palmira and Eurofrigo, accused of siphoning off 7.5 million euro of SAPARD funding. Businessman Lyudmil Stoikov, who had helped bankroll President Georgi Purvanov's re-election campaign, owned stakes in all three firms.