April 8 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov said he has requested from the economy minister to seek the resignation of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) management over a controversial loan, local media reported on Wednesday.
The BDB has consulted neither the finance minister, nor the economy minister regarding the 75 million levs ($41.6 million/38.3 million euro) loan to Sveti Georgi Group, Borissov said, as reported by public broadcaster BNT.
Sveti Georgi Group had assets of just 57,000 levs at the end of 2018, according to its latest annual financial statement. The company is fully owned by private individual Yulian Tsamparov, according to commercial register data. Tsamparov is a member of the executive board of debt collection company S.G. Group.
The disbursement of the loan was severely criticised by both the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the centre-right Democratic Bulgaria.
The incumbents are stealing public money under the disguise of anti-crisis measures, BSP leader Kornelia Ninova said.
"Taxpayers' money is being used to finance a debt collection company at a moment when millions of Bulgarians are going into debt; the budget is financing dubious groups so that they can buy out people's credits and harass them," Democratic Bulgaria said in a statement.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)