Nearly 20 thousand leva per month were paid in 2024 to the three members of the Management Board (MB) of the state-owned stud farm “Kabiyuk” near Shumen. The data were published in the company’s financial report. The remuneration of the board of directors (excluding insurance) jumped by nearly 29% compared to the previous year – from 187 thousand leva in 2023 to 238 thousand leva in 2024.
The serious growth in the income of the bosses does not correspond to such an economic upswing in the state-owned enterprise. On the contrary, both the state as the owner and the director of the stud farm Martin Georgiev admit that
in recent years the farm has been in a difficult financial situation and its debts are constantly increasing.
For the period January-September 2023, the stud farm’s revenues decreased by over 1 million leva compared to the previous year and fell to 4.07 million leva. Expenses for the same period increased by 1 million leva and reached 5.79 million leva. As a result, the stud farm reported an accounting loss of 1.722 million leva at the end of September, according to data from the interim financial statements. In the last months of the year, the enterprise managed to reduce the loss to 488 thousand leva thanks to payments received from the Ministry of Agriculture.
These uncovered losses from previous years, amounting to 488 thousand leva, will remain “hanging” at the stud farm at the end of 2024. Otherwise, last year the farm showed a balance sheet profit of 297 thousand leva. The losses are being repaid in installments under agreements, the director of the stud farm said.
Against this background,
the government’s decision to increase the Management Board of “Kabiyuk” from 3 to 5 people seems strange.
The decision was made at a cabinet meeting on August 13 with a decree to change the regulations of the state-owned enterprise. According to a press release from the Council of Ministers, “the purpose of the change is to increase control and efficiency in making management decisions.”
Currently, the management board of the stud farm includes Martin Georgiev (director), Zlatka Vazelova, chairman of the board, and Milen Polimenov. Polimenov and Vazelova have been with the company since November 2022, when Polimenov was appointed director. In September 2023, Martin Georgiev became director, while the other two remained on the board of directors.
Difficult financial situation
The financial report of the stud farm for 2024 shows worrying trends, despite the reported balance sheet profit. It was generally achieved thanks to payments from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and subsidies, while the company’s business activity is declining.
Revenues from the sale of production at the stud farm are decreasing, and significantly – from 3.503 million BGN in 2023 to 2.134 million BGN in 2024. The most serious decline is in crop production – from 3.111 million BGN to 1.778 million BGN. The state farm has 28,320 decares of land, of which 20,671 decares are arable, and the rest are meadows, pastures, buildings, etc. Last year, there were no changes in the size of the land.
There was an increase in revenue only in the sale of services, due to the stud farm’s contract with the Ministry of Agriculture for the maintenance of valuable breeds from the national gene pool. Under this paragraph, the payments to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development increase from 1.146 million leva in 2023 to 1.912 million leva in 2024. The subsidies received have also doubled – for livestock breeding from 124,000 leva to 241 thousand leva, for agroecology from 47 thousand leva to 130 thousand leva, for arable land from 586 thousand leva to 933 thousand leva.
Who will be the new directors?
The board of directors of the state stud farm has always been a “feeder” for loyal cadres of the ruling party, and over the years all parties in power have appointed their own people to the enterprise, even if they do not understand anything about livestock breeding and agriculture. Therefore, it is expected that the new additions to the board of directors will be worthy activists of today’s rulers.
For a month, there has been intense talk among the people of Shumen that the former mayor and current deputy and regional chairman of GERB, Lyubomir Hristov, wants to put his people on the board of Kabiyuk.
“Now the stud farm is under the influence of Ilter Beizatov, with whom Hristov has been in conflict for years,” GERB activists comment, pointing out that Beizatov “may have started working for Peevski.” In order to “restore” the balance of power, Lyubomir Hristov would propose his loyal party members as members of the board of directors.
The names of Plamen Indjev and Yulian Valchev, close to the former Shumen mayor, are being discussed in the public sphere. Indjev is currently the deputy director of the municipal enterprise “Municipal Housing and Properties” and a business partner of Hristov in his intention to build a residential complex in the “Smese” area above “Arena Shumen”.
Yulian Valchev is the former director of Irrigation Systems, who in 2020 was finally convicted on charges of intentional mismanagement due to the draining of a dam and illegal fishing to 2 years suspended with a 3-year probationary period.
After the ministerial decree,
it is unclear whether the current members of the Board of Directors will retain their seats, including the director.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry may appoint a completely new board of directors or only fill the two new seats on the Board. The principal points out that the additional funds needed for the increased board of directors are in the order of 4,000 leva per month for remuneration and insurance for each new member, with “the resource being provided by additional income generated from the company’s activities.”
In 2018, Borisov’s third cabinet reduced the board of directors of the state stud farm from five to three members and completely abolished the previously existing Control Board of the Kabiyuk State Enterprise. At that time, the reasons for cutting the number of directors were that the powers of the board of directors do not require specific expertise and can be exercised by three members, and the reduction of the number of bosses will lead to savings. Seven years later, a GERB government again restores the old status quo.
