Following an investigation by “For the Truth” and a subsequent report by bTV revealing violations in the conduct of auctions for the leasing of lands from the State Land Fund, the director of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Silistra, Ginka Kateva, who was supposedly appointed temporarily, quickly dismissed three long-term employees.
These include chief expert Svetlana Simeonova and senior experts Silviya Ginova and Ivan Angelov. Silviya Ginova started working as an expert in the Regional Directorate of Agriculture – Silistra back in 2003, while the other two joined in 2011. When contacted by “For the Truth,” the employees confirmed that they are no longer employed there.
Their dismissal orders were issued on the second day following the broadcast of a report by Marin Nikolov on February 19 in the program “120 Minutes.”
What is the violation of the dismissed employees?
All three were actively involved in the inspections initiated by the previous director of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture, Radko Slavov, contributing to the uncovering of corrupt schemes in organizing the auctions in 2021, which are addressed in the investigation by “For the Truth” and the subsequent bTV report.
This pertains to 241 properties in the areas of the villages of Svetoslav, Polkovnik Cholangovo, and Pop Kralево, which were not announced during the tendering process for their rental. The majority of the agricultural lands – 190 properties (over 2,000 decares) – were won by Todor Todorov, the regional coordinator of GERB. He will cultivate them for another 10 years and profit through EU subsidies.
During the tender procedure in 2021, the director of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Silistra was indeed Ginka Kateva. She is a member of the local GERB organization, which is led by Todor Todorov. According to the inspection by the inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, she bears responsibility because, as the director, she did not announce the properties for leasing. Consequently, these properties remained hidden, and those interested in participating in the tender were unaware of them.
There is also a lack of protocol from the conducted tenders – someone has destroyed it. Thus, it could not be established whether the procedure was conducted legally. There was no investigation to determine whether those participating in the tenders were already cultivating over 10,000 decares of land from the state fund – a threshold set by law.
However, the inspection found that at the time of acquiring new lands, Todor Todorov was already cultivating over 12,000 decares in conjunction with his mother, Slavka Ivanova, which violates the law. In the bTV report, he stated that he and his mother run separate farms and that the restriction was a misunderstanding in the law, which should be interpreted as a right to disregard.
However, this is not the view of the inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture’s inspectorate. They maintained that he should not have been allowed to participate in the tender at all.
But alongside Radko Slavov’s revelations, an operation to “save Private Kateva” began.
Following Slavov’s complaints about the violations in the 2021 tender, which led to organized checks, individuals around Ginka Kateva and those interested in maintaining the status quo submitted reports about violations in the tender procedure in 2022. These were organized by Radko Slavov. Thus, a second inspection began concurrently, resulting in a second “revenge” report.
These two reports, regarding the two tenders, were subsequently forwarded to the prosecutor’s office in Silistra. During the inspections, Ginka Kateva was reassigned to another position in the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and went on leave. After the report regarding the complaints against Radko Slavov was published, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture organized…
“Wag te dog”
An emergency meeting was called with agricultural producers in the hall of the Silistra municipality. They were informed that due to submitted reports of violations, the tender procedure for lands from the state land fund for 2022 would be annulled. This is a drastic measure that was not applied to the tender in 2021, which was overseen by Kateva, nor in any other previous tenders. It was also announced at the same meeting that this annulment would be carried out by order of the Minister of Agriculture.
A key role in Ginka Kateva’s reinstatement as director is played by Minister Yavor Gechev, who is from the Bulgarian Socialist Party and a party mate of Radko Slavov. This, of course, raises questions about
other relationships and affiliations
that lie outside party allegiance, but the fact remains that it was with Gechev’s blessing that Radko Slavov was dismissed while Ginka Kateva was confirmed in her position, leading to the current staffing changes in the office.
Based on the minister’s order, the reinstated Ginka Kateva issued her own order in October, annulling the tender procedure for 2022. Her order cites violations identified during the conduct of the tender by the committee appointed by Radko Slavov. These violations are now being used as a formal reason for the dismissal of the three long-serving experts.
These three experts were part of the committee that conducted the tender procedure in 2022. In the subsequent disciplinary case initiated by Kateva against them in December, they were given the opportunity to provide written explanations, which they did. However, there were no indications that the most severe sanction – dismissal – would be imposed. This occurred following a television report in which
Kateva was forced to explain uncomfortable questions.
The three employees were dismissed just two days after the broadcast on bTV. The sanction was applied under the Law on Public Servants (Article 90, paragraph 1, item 5). The other points in the same paragraph provide for a warning, reprimand, postponement of promotion for a year, or demotion for a period of six months to one year. However, these alternatives were not applied. The law stipulates that when imposing a sanction, the overall conduct of the employees should also be taken into account (Article 91).
The dismissed employees have always received high marks in their evaluations over the years. The order for their dismissal does not reflect the stance of the appointed disciplinary committee. It only states the basis for dismissal – violations in the conduct of the annulled tender from 2022. This means that it may turn out that not all circumstances were considered when the dismissal decision was made.
In the tender procedure referenced by Kateva for the dismissals, qualified lawyers also participated, with whom the employees consulted before making decisions. For this reason, they assert that the tender was conducted competently and that there were no significant violations. It is worth recalling that during the tender conducted by the committee appointed by Kateva in 2021,
the protocol has been irretrievably lost.
This was noted in the report from the committee to the inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture.
However, regarding Ginka Kateva herself, the commission of the inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, which conducted the investigations into the violations of the tender in 2021, has approached her quite leniently, acknowledging that one year has passed since the violation was established and that a penalty cannot be imposed on her. This situation involves the undisclosed 241 properties that she unilaterally excluded from the lists, which were later won by Todor Todorov.
The inspectorate’s report on the hidden properties from 2021 also examines the actions of another employee – the expert Tunjder Redzheb. His access to the work computer containing the tender data was revoked by Radko Slavov, with the reason being
established data manipulation.
The alterations were meant to make it appear as if the hidden properties had been publicly announced. Other data were completely deleted from the computer’s hard drive. These manipulations were also reported by the regional governor at the time, Katya Krusteva, through a published report on the website of the regional administration. She also announced abuses with state lands during the tenders.
The employee Tunjder Redzheb has not been dismissed so far; instead, he is constantly on medical leave or vacation. It is evident that he is highly valued by someone. Another significant question arises – why, after there are reports of violations from two tenders conducted by two directors, has one been removed from office while the other has been reinstated? This raises serious doubts about the possibility of an objective investigation of the facts by law enforcement regarding the two reports – particularly concerning the preservation of documents and data that could prove the violations. Moreover, along with the purge of personnel at the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Silistra, there has also been a
purge of documents and data,
sources inform “For the Truth.”
According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s response to bTV, Ginka Kateva was temporarily reinstated as director of the RD in Silistra because she was the only one with experience and professional training to handle “urgent rapid and adequate actions” regarding the organization of a new tender. However, while temporarily in this position, it turns out that her urgent rapid and adequate actions as the only one with experience and professional training involve dismissing other individuals with experience and professional qualifications.
The vacant positions for experts are being filled by loyal individuals from the municipal services. One of these employees is senior expert Kristina Ivanova, who has recently been transferred from the office in Kainardzha to the regional directorate in Silistra.
As “For the Truth” has already reported, she is a former employee of Todor Todorov, and a notarized power of attorney from 2014 reveals that she represented him years ago at tenders for land that he would manage. However, Kristina Ivanova has now been appointed by Ginka Kateva and serves as a member of the disciplinary council of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture – Silistra. This council was supposed to rule on the violations of the three dismissed employees. This may also provide insight into
who might actually be behind the purge
in the agricultural service of Silistra.
The report by bTV also revealed that at the 2022 tender conducted by Radko Slavov, lands were won for processing by new tenants, rather than the old players. Moreover, the prices were higher. This is confirmed by the three dismissed employees, who stated that the 2022 tender allowed new participants and was not predetermined. However, this alteration impacted interests and particularly changed the scheme of “land for our people.” As a result of this change, all three employees were dismissed.
