The Bulgarian governments of the past seven years (2000/2007) have spent just more than 6.5 billion leva in budget surplus money, a study posted on the website of local research outfit Institute for Market Economics (IME) shows.

The spending of some 4.6 billion leva in budget surplus cash was approved by the government upon proposal of the Finance Ministry. Concrete information on how this was spent and on what is very limited and it is almost impossible to cite any specific results achieved with the said financing.

The IME analysis also indicates that the Health Ministry received the largest share of budget surplus cash, at 335 million leva. It is followed by the Regional Development Ministry, with 280 million, the Cabinet with 154 million and the Interior Ministry with 150 million leva.

More than one billion leva of the budget surplus money was given to various local government bodies, with no clear indication of how the allocations were made or on what they were spent.

IME said that the Bulgarian government tends to reach deepest into the budget surplus in years preceding parliamentary elections.

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