Simeonovgrad Municipality paid nearly BGN 833,000 under civil contracts over the past four years. Most of the money went to employees who already had employment contracts with the municipal administration.
According to information provided to municipal councillor Yanka Cholakova, a total of BGN 832,900 was paid under civil contracts between 2022 and 2025.
The data show that in 2023, 17 municipal employees also received payments under civil contracts. Among them were Teodorinka Ivanova, head of one of the town’s schools, who also worked under a contract as a public educator, and chief accountant Antoaneta Trifonova, who had a civil contract under the “Hot Lunch” project.
The following year, 2024, there were 15 municipal employees who also worked under civil contracts. In 2025, the number was 11, including one teacher.
The documents show that the largest total payments under civil contracts went to municipal employee Dinka Markova, a chief specialist in territorial planning and development, who received BGN 182,500 between 2022 and 2025.
She was followed by Zhivka Velikova, the municipality’s chief engineer, with BGN 176,100. Unlike Markova, Velikova carried out investor-control functions and other duties as chief engineer exclusively under civil contracts.
In 2024, Velikova received substantial payments for supervising projects on Targovska Street and at the Central City Park. For one of the positions alone, she received BGN 18,850. Her payments remained consistently high throughout the four-year period.
Third in the ranking is Milena Shtereva, with BGN 63,000. She works as an operator responsible for a dam wall.
Her remuneration increased dramatically over the years – from BGN 407 a month in 2022 and BGN 484 a month in 2023 to BGN 4,230 per month in 2024. In addition to the monthly payments, she also received one-off payments for technical analyses of dams.
Yasen Penev also worked for Simeonovgrad Municipality under a civil contract. He was responsible for the municipality’s software and computer maintenance and received BGN 38,600 in total.
His monthly remuneration increased from BGN 550 at the beginning of the period to BGN 1,100 per month in 2024 and 2025. These amounts were supplemented by periodic payments for preparing equipment for elections.
Ivan Chertukov received BGN 38,300 for street lighting maintenance. In 2022, he was paid BGN 700 per month, while from 2023 through 2025 his monthly remuneration was fixed at BGN 830.
Close behind was Ekaterina Vlahova, who received around BGN 36,700 in total. She had the largest number of individual civil contracts in the register, mainly for serving on numerous committees under the Public Procurement Act.
Unlike the top five, whose payments were dominated by large one-off amounts for construction supervision, the second half of the ranking consists mainly of experts working under long-term contracts with monthly remuneration.
Radostina Dencheva, who provides medical services at the Centre for Social Rehabilitation and Integration, received approximately BGN 30,000.
Maria Delcheva, who appears in the registers mainly as a project manager, most often on the “Hot Lunch” project, received approximately BGN 25,920.
Atanas Atanasov received nearly BGN 24,500 for providing surveying services under a monthly civil contract worth BGN 500.
Krasimir Zhelev received around BGN 23,520 under contracts for forestry services.
Are some duties being paid for twice?
Investor control over municipal construction projects is, in essence, one of the core functions of a municipality’s technical services department.
Whether the mayor and municipal administration are legally entitled to enter into civil contracts with their own employees for work already included in their employment duties is a question that can only be determined by legal experts.
What is clear, however, is that in some cases there appears to be payment twice for essentially the same activity – once through the employee’s monthly salary for working in the technical services department, and a second time through a civil contract for supervising a specific project.
There is also a relevant precedent involving Mayor Milena Rangelova.
She was fined BGN 30,000 for having a contract with her nephew Simeon Hadzhikolev in 2023 and 2024.
