These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on August 14 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Politics
- KPMG will do another audit of the National Road Infrastructure Agency (former National Road Infrastructure Fund) for conflicts of interest in projects under the European Union pre-accession programmes Phare and Ispa, Dnevnik said. The consultancy company would also audit the system for control and management of funds, Finance Minister Plamen Orsharski was quoted as saying.
- Sofia municipal councillors from the Bulgarian Socialist Party accused mayor Boiko Borissov of allowing the requirements for all public procurements that the city hall announced to be deliberately prepared so that only a few companies could meet them, Dnevnik said.
Social
- The Cabinet was seeking obtain through lease-to-purchase two second-hand aircraft with a capacity of 100 seats each, Sega daily said. The Cabinet was ready to pay $80 million for the planes.
- More than half of the sentences on which courts ruled in the first half of 2008 for proven crimes were probations or suspended sentences, Sega reported. A total of 6460 accused received suspended sentences, 7690 received probation and only 4510 received a full sentence.
- As more foreign tourists are arriving at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast on pre-paid vacation packages, restaurant owners and beach concessionaires are constantly increase the prices, trying to make a profit, Monitor daily wrote. According to the newspaper, a Bulgarian family of two would pay at least double the price for sunbathing on the beach than the foreign tourists on pre-paid holidays.
Economy
- One third of the importers of second-hand vehicles and mobile phones from the EU violated Bulgaria’s tax legislation, Dnevnik said. The newspaper quoted data from the National Revenue Agency.
- The number of real estate companies to close was increasing, Dnevnik quoted Varna association for real estate representative Dragomir Ganev as saying. The reason was the deadlock in the property market, especially in the holiday homes sector.
