An activist of the supposedly opposition and Sanctioned under the “Magnitsky Act” political leader Delian Peevski was ranked first in the competition for the director of the Territorial Directorate of the National Social Security Institute (NOI) in Shumen, despite having no experience in the system.
What is shocking in this case is that Peevski’s candidate, lacking experience in the NOI, competed against a professional with 12 years of experience in the social security institute, who is also an activist of the ruling GERB party. Thus, the head-to-head clash between Peevski and Borisov in Shumen ended with a victory for “New Beginning.” As the saying goes, “where there was a flow, it will flow again…“
The candidate who ranked first in the competition for the director of NOI-Shumen, Sevjan Akif, graduated with a degree in “Social Pedagogy” from Shumen University and “Public Administration” from Burgas Free University. In recent years, before the split in the DPS party, she worked as a technical secretary for MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk. Following the declaration of a public war between Ahmed Dogan and Delian Peevski, Akif became the leader of DPS-New Beginning in Hitrino and was ninth on the Shumen list for Delian Peevski in the last elections.
The other candidate for the director of NOI-Shumen is lawyer Ivaylo Iliev, a municipal councilor from GERB, who has extensive experience in the social security system.
Iliev has been a lawyer for 10 years, but prior to that, he worked for over 12 years at NOI-Shumen, rising from a regular expert to the head of a department that he himself created and developed. He was also the deputy governor of Shumen, has served multiple terms as a municipal councilor, and in recent years was the chair of the District Election Commission.
However, Sevjan Akif surpassed Iliev in the competition for the director of NOI-Shumen with a better score on the written exam, as indicated by the published results on the NOI website. The competition consisted of two parts: a test and an interview. Both candidates received a score of “4” for the interview, but in the written test, which reflects the professional knowledge of the participants, Akif received a higher score—4.80 (38 points)—compared to Ivaylo Iliev’s score of 4.30 (33 points).
Thus, the final results were 50.40 for Sevjan Akif and 48.90 for Ivaylo Iliev. The competition commission ranked Sevjan Akif first and Ivaylo Iliev second, as stated on the NOI website.
The test was difficult and required knowledge of both legislation and the “inner workings” of the NOI, making it inexplicable how a professional like Ivaylo Iliev, who has worked within the system, received a lower score than a candidate with no experience at the social security institute, commented individuals from the territorial division in Shumen.
Meanwhile, according to widespread comments on social media, the competition was predetermined, and it had been known for months who would be the new director of NOI-Shumen. “Apparently, they were given the test and the concept in advance; she’s been boasting for a month that she’ll become the director of NOI. It’s a rigged job… GERB has become a laughing stock in Shumen!” and “How is it that, out of a total of five directors released simultaneously from regional NOIs across the country, only one competition for a director has been announced, and that is in Shumen? It’s been announced because the deputy head of NOI made a deal and is conveniently going to appoint this ‘valuable and worthy’ activist of Peevski to represent an institution like NOI?” are some of the comments made by residents of Shumen on social media.
The leadership of the NOI is elected by parliament and is independent of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (MLSP), while Social Minister Borislav Gutsanov is only a member of the supervisory board of the NOI, and that only as of yesterday, commented members of the BSP party, which oversees the social ministry.
The candidate who ranked second, Ivaylo Iliev, stated that he would not appeal the decision of the election commission, as he does not wish to discredit the institution of NOI. This means that there are no obstacles for the manager of the NOI to sign the order appointing Sevjan Akif as the head of the Shumen territorial division, which is responsible for the pensions and sick leave of tens of thousands of people.
“Dismissal of social director caught with alcohol overturned” – this headline from the newspaper “Trud” in April 2016 is one of the first publications that appears when searching for the name Sevjan Akif online. In early 2016, Sevjan Akif was dismissed from her position as director of the Regional Directorate for Social Assistance (RDSP) in Shumen on the grounds that “the public servant was sentenced to imprisonment for a deliberate crime of a general nature.” However, the court reinstated her in the position, despite the court ruling indicating that Akif was sentenced to six months of probation and a ban on driving, as she was caught driving a vehicle in the center of Hitrino with a blood alcohol concentration of 1.31 promille on August 2, 2015. At the time of the traffic violation, however, Akif was not serving as the social director.
She was appointed to the position on January 20, 2014, but one month later, the Agency for Social Assistance terminated her contract. Akif contested her dismissal in the Administrative Court in Shumen, and in 2015, the judges ruled in her favor. It was during this period of legal battles that Akif was caught driving under the influence of alcohol. Despite the incident and the sentence imposed, at the beginning of 2016, Sevjan Akif expressed her desire to be reinstated as the director of RDSP-Shumen. The agency again dismissed her, and Akif appealed the second order in court.
