The debts of Bulgaria's National Road Infrastructure Fund (NRIF) exceed its planned expenditures for 2008, but no clear idea where the money to pay them will come from, mediapool.bg reported on February 7 2008.

Overdue payments stand at 140 million leva, but the Fund's budget for this year is only 126 million leva, mediapool.bg quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Given the controversy caused by the allocation of funds from the 2007 budget surplus, it is unclear whether any funds will be allocated to pay for the repairs that have already been carried out from this year's surplus, NRIF sources said.

Bulgaria's Regional Development and Public Works Ministry publishes the list of road repair projects on its website, but does not break down the sums paid for each separate contract.

The Government is intentionally keeping the data out of the public space, because then it would be easy to see which companies receive the bulk of the funding, Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) member of Parliament Evgeni Chachev claims.

Whether that is true or not, the recent corruption allegations in NRIF have resulted in enough media coverage to have the Finance Ministry and the Chamber of Audit probing NRIF's paperwork to uncover whether any Fund moneys have been misused by its former chief Vesselin Georgiev, mediapool.bg said.

A first probe has concluded that Georgiev "could have found himself in a situation in which a conflict of interest would arise or manifest itself" by signing off on contracts worth a total 120 million leva between the Fund and a firm managed by his younger brother.

Georgiev maintains there was no conflict of interest, but all the contracts he has signed during his 17 months in office are now under close scrutiny, with the results of the investigation due to be made public by the end of the month.