The State Consolidation Company has not yet paid the dividend due by law to the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria. This is the initial information from the analysis of the current state of the institution. According to a preliminary individual financial report, the amount that did not enter the state budget is over BGN 12 million.
According to the law, by June 30, public enterprises, what the SCC undoubtedly is, shall submit to the authority exercising the rights of the state, the audited and accepted annual financial statements, respectively individual and consolidated. The DCC did not present to the Minister of Economy and Industry, in his capacity as a body exercising the rights of the state, neither an individual nor a consolidated report. With this, receipts to the state budget were delayed, and they are extremely important in a year of so many crises.
On the occasion of today’s press conference of the DCC management, the Ministry of Economy and Industry stated that they are very worried about the way the executive director sabotages all processes. On Friday, August 5, at a meeting held between Minister Nikola Stojanov and Smilyana Nitova, executive director of the State Consolidation Company (SCC), her power of attorney was requested to register new members in the company’s management body, as the Management Board is currently below the legal minimum. Claims that she did not know why she had to provide the document are untrue.
Moreover, as the executive director of the SCC, she has no right to refuse the entry of new members of the Board of Directors, given the fact that such a decision has already been taken, nor to withdraw a power of attorney already given in this direction. Her actions at that moment are singular and essentially sabotage the right of the principal – in the person of the Minister of Economy, to appoint representatives chosen by him to the Board of Directors.
To date, the SCC operates contrary to the Public Enterprises ACt (Article 22, Paragraph 2), which states that the boards of directors of public enterprises categorised as “large” consist of at least five members. The SCC is, in the sense of the law, a “large” enterprise. However, its Board of Directors until August consisted of four members. For this reason, the composition of its Management Board is being increased. Only after the Ministry of Economy has received objective information about the real state of the company will all decisions, including ones related to the staff, be made.
It is still unclear whether today’s press conference was given by Smilyana Nitova as an executive director or as a participant in the upcoming election campaign. According to the Rules for the Work of the Board of Directors of the SCC, its members cannot participate in media appearances that concern the company’s activities, without an express decision of the Board of Directors. As far as the Ministry of Economy and Industry is aware, such a decision has not been considered or taken. However, the institution considers it a priority for the public to be informed about all topics, without, however, undermining the authority of state institutions. We believe that this is exactly what was done in the case with “Kintex” EAD.
The Ministry of Economy and Industry reports that a signal has been received and an investigation by the competent authorities has been initiated. The signal claims that financial abuse was deliberately committed in the company. In this regard, documents were requested. They were provided for the purposes of the inspection. Before all information is obtained, it is harmful to make public any information that may either help to conceal a crime or compromise the current management of the company if the information indicated in the report is not true. That is why details about the signal are not presented to the media before all the information is gathered. With today’s statements of the executive director of the SCC, the image of one of its subsidiaries is deliberately damaged, which is unacceptable.
Today’s press conference of the head of the SCC and yesterday’s media manifestation of the SCC show that for some of the employees of the previous minister, any requested information about the current state of the organisation entrusted to them is perceived as direct interference in their work. The Ministry of Economy and Industry reminds them again that they have an institutional and not a political principal.