State Fund Agriculture (SFA) has been put under an eight month “probation” period by the new Agriculture Minister Valeri Tsvetanov at the request of the European Commission (EC), Tsvetanov told reporters on April 30 2008 at his first news conference as a minister.

The “probation” period will end on November 30, Tsvetanov was quoted as saying by Mediapool.bg.

The reason for the “quarantine” is Marian Fischer Boel,  EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development (Denmark), who sent a letter to Bulgaria on April 17 asking for the measure to be imposed, Mediapool.bg said.

According to Tsvetanov, the real reason for the measure was the ongoing appointment of staff at the state agency in charge of controlling payments under SAPARD programme and their training. The agency works within the SFA.

On April 18 Mediapool.bg quoted anonymous sources from the prosecution as saying that SFA’s executive director Dimitur Tadarukov was under investigation because of SFA's spending of 22 million leva.

The money was spent by SFA under European Union's SAPARD rural aid pre-accession programme.

According to mediapool.bg, Tadarukov's investigation was part of the investigation against Assen Droumov, who is the former head of the state agency in charge of controlling payments under SAPARD programme and is SFA's predecessor.

Both Tadarukov and Assenov have denied any allegations.