The supervising council of the municipal agency for privatisation (MAP) met on December 14 in a special meeting and decided to put the privatisation procedure of municipal company Tramcar on hold. The past several days, a scandal started to emerge around the company, after its managing director Hristosko Vretenarov admitted that 660 000 leva had been drained through consultancy services.

December 14 was the deadline for final candidates for the privatisation to make their deposits, Dnevnik daily said.

Candidates for the privatisation were Elektromachinary Holding, Elmashtrans and Energoremont-MK.

"The procedure remains open, but for the moment it has been halted," MAP spokesperson Svetlin Lisichkov said.
Earlier he commented that halting the procedure could be expensive for the municipality. According to Lisichkov, it was possible that the three companies would demand compensations for expenses made in the preparation of the privatisation offers. The companies would be returned the money for entering the procedure, 10 800 leva each, Dnevnik said. Tramcar was being privatised through a competition, against the commitment that the company would continue its activities, repairs of trams and trolleys, for at least 25 years. Opening price was set at 22 million leva.

Andreas Engibarov of board of directors of Tramcar told the municipal committee that, for them, the news about the draining of the company had come as complete a surprise.