Eight parties in Bulgaria, most of which have parliamentary representation, were earning money by illegally renting out real estate, which had been given to them by the state for political activities, a Bulgarian National Audit Office report on the management of property granted to political parties in 2006 showed.

It was the first audit on management of property granted to parties, made by the audit office, its head Valeri Dimitrov said as quoted by mediapool.bg.

According to local legislation, political parties, parliamentary-presented political formations and parties, which won more than one per cent of the vote in elections, have the right to use state-owned property for the needs of their political activities. The properties are rented to the parties at a fixed rate.

The parties do not have the right to use the property for business activities or to make them available to other entities or companies.

The Bulgarian National Audit Office report showed that Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union (Stefan Lilchev), Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union (Georgi Pinchev), VMRO, Gergiovden, National Movement for Stability and Progress, the Union of Democratic Forces, Union of Free Democrats and the Green Party illegally rented out properties, granted to them by the state.

The violations were registered mainly in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna,mediapool.bg said. In almost all the cases, the parties rented out the property at several times the rent they paid to the state.

A total of 40 parties used state or municipal properties illegally and 17 of them regularly did not pay their rent, the audit office said.

More than 250 parties did not present to the audit office their annual financial reports for 2006. Only 10 parties presented the reports in time.