The “Montazhi” company, which is owned by the State Consolidation Company (SCC), has requested the return of the BGN 66 million advance paid to it at the beginning of 2021 to a company selected without a contract to build a government complex on the territory of “Sofia Tech Park. The given deadline for the refund of the amount is November 21, and if this is not done voluntarily, Montazhi will file a lawsuit against the recipient of the amount,” Economy Minister Bogdan Bogdanov told journalists on Friday.
The decision to build a new government complex in “Sofia Tech Park”, which was an idea of Sergey Stanishev’s cabinet, was taken at the end of the mandate of the third government of Boyko Borisov. DCK was granted BGN 182 million for the construction of the skyscraper with 90,000 square meters of built-up area. However, the company outsourced this through an internal order to its subsidiary company “Montazhi”, which in turn chose the consortium “Planex – HPP” as the contractor. He got the advance, quickly getting to work on construction plans. It turned out that already in 2019, “Sofia Tech Park” established a right of construction in favor of DCK by decision of their common principal – the then Ministry of Economy.
In 2021, however, Stefan Yanev’s office decided to terminate the project for the new government complex, where the current offices of the Council of Ministers were to be moved. The then member of the DCK board, Raya Kanazireva, said that the contractor agreed to terminate the contract concluded with him, if he received the stipulated profit of 10 percent of the value of the order.
Now Bogdan Bogdanov said that in the letter sent to the contractor for the return of the advance paid to him, it was allowed to recognize the costs actually incurred by the company for the preparation of the project until its termination. However, they must be proven, he specified.
The Minister of Economy sharply criticized the funds distributed during the last government to GERB in advance for internal orders of state-owned companies. According to his words, DCK was seriously damaged by this, since in order to pay part of these expenses, loans were taken out, on which interest is flowing.
“It is necessary for this to happen as a matter of urgency, because of the interest rates that flow every day,” said Bogdanov.
He also reported on the work done by the new management of DCK for the last two months. According to him, the companies under the company’s umbrella have already prepared business programs, and their financial statements for 2021 and 2022 have been prepared. He announced that the competitions for a new management team are coming, ensuring transparency in their conduct.
Tags: state demanded million advance suspended government complex
