President Radev Calls for Public Register of Spending to Fight COVID-19

President Rumen Radev believes a public register should be introduced to account for spending on the fight against the coronavirus, with regular updates of the outlays, the approval criteria and the sources of financing. Radev's position was released by his press secretariat on Monday.

The coronvirus crisis is already having serious socio-economic consequences, said Radev. To mitigate them, the European countries are implementing a wide range of measures, being aware that their structure, scope and speed are key to the nations' well-being and progress.

The President said that a month and a half into the state of emergency, the Bulgarian government has not come up yet with a clear and convincing programme for timely, accessible and free aid. "At the same time, a growing amount of public money has been allocated for coping with the crisis, a huge loan is about to be taken out. Having declared a state of emergency, the executive has obtained exceptional powers to manage those resources uncontrollably," said Radev. He added that it should not be forgotten that those resources have to be earned and repaid by the Bulgarian citizens and businesses.

Therefore what is needed are clear mechanisms of transparency, accountability, and effective and responsible use of public money, said the head of State.    

Radev called for a ban on the use of state financial aid by offshore companies and companies with subsidiaries registered in offshore tax havens. Some EU countries have already made such companies ineligible for state aid from their coronavirus bailout packages, while others are considering such a move, he said.

Source: BTA