November 9 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers over the weekend and on Monday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
PARI
- An audit at the Bulgarian road infrastructure fund shows six cases of conflict of interest concerning contracts worth 88.28 million levs ($67.51 million/45.13 million euro). The audit, conducted by KPMG in 2007, has been declassified and published on the finance ministry’s website, the newspaper reported. The audit was conducted after the European Union suspended pre-accession funds to Bulgaria under PHARE and ISPA programs.
- Interest rates should drop by at least three percentage points, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov told a meeting with businessmen at the weekend in Varna. Political and economic risks have decreased, which is a sign that lending rates should start falling, the minister said.
- The unemployment rate would not exceed 9.5% by the end of the year, Labour Minister Totyu Mladenov said in a statement. According to labour unions and employers, however, between 80,000 and 100,000 jobs are expected to be cut by January and unemployment rate will soar well above 10%.
- Bulgaria’s National Electric Company and German energy giant RWE have spent unlawfully 300 million levs ($229.41 million/153.36 million euro) on a joint venture to build the Belene nuclear power plant, though no company was set up, according to a report of the Public Financial Inspection Agency. Economy Minister Traycho Traykov said his predecessor Peter Dimitrov should be held liable.
DNEVNI
- Almost 200 million euro coming from the European initiative JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) and Bulgaria’s budget will be spent on equity financing of light and heavy industry, IT and communication companies in 2010, deputy energy minister Evgeni Angelov said on Sunday in connection with the renewed negotiations with the European investment fund for the creation of a holding structure for equity financing and venture capital.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)