The Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) published today the third video in the series “Swampy Tales from Varna Lake.” This episode traces the inexplicable state preferences for the businesses of Ahmed Dogan, the honorary chairman of the DPS, related to TPP “Varna” and its adjacent TPP “Ezrovo” port.
The latest link in this chain of state aid is the dredging of the navigable channels of Varna Lake— the largest public investment in port infrastructure in the last 50 years. As it stands, the project will benefit specifically Dogan’s modernized TPP “Ezrovo” port, rather than the state ports Varna-East and Varna-West.
The preferential treatment of the “TPP Ezrovo” port
by the state began immediately after Ahmed Dogan acquired it on August 7, 2018, from the children of former transport minister and director of Varna port, Danail Papazov. The notary who certified the signatures on the contract is notary Vesela Ivcheva, who became known from the ACF investigation “The Eight Dwarfs.”
“Ezrovo” received its certification as a port operator on August 13, 2018. The waste management plan for the new port was approved on August 31, 2018. On September 5, 2018, TPP Ezrovo received its certificate of operational suitability, and on September 12, 2018, it received its registration certificate.
A few months later, in January 2019, the ministers of transport and regional development, Rosen Zhelyazkov and Petya Avramova, issued an order allowing for the development of a master plan for the port by consolidating several new properties around it.
By bypassing several laws,
the state effectively gifted “Sigda” the pier of Ezrovo, becoming a partner of the private company. This grants them the right to operate the pier and port facilities, which are public state property, free of charge until 2054. Despite legal restrictions, the state also commits to supplying ships docking at TPP Ezrovo with water, electricity, and all necessary communications.
Through these swift state interventions, within just a few months, TPP Ezrovo became licensed and operational, meeting all regulatory requirements for conducting transshipment and commercial activities.
Plans for its development in the coming years foresee
an investment of 89 million euros.
The idea is for the port to handle containers, liquid and bulk cargo, with a projected capacity of 8 million tons per year—almost as much as the current volume of Varna-West. There are also plans for the construction of new container infrastructure, enabling Ezrovo to handle 200,000 tons of containers annually, equivalent to the capacity of all Bulgarian ports combined.
These development plans for Ezrovo Port are even more impressive against the backdrop of the lack of adequate port infrastructure at the state port of Varna-West and the absence of comprehensive development plans for it. Only after a complete modernization and mechanization of loading and unloading operations could the state port benefit from the dredging of the channels. Moreover, the municipality plans to develop the other state port in Varna Bay—Varna-East—as a recreational and entertainment area.
All of this raises the question of whether the private TPP Ezrovo is
the primary beneficiary
of the largest public project for the development of port infrastructure in the past half-century.
The state preferences for the Ezrovo port appear to be in sync with the privileged treatment that institutions demonstrate toward Dogan’s other business at Varna Lake—the “TPP Varna.” Between 2018 and mid-2021, TPP Varna received over 87 million leva from the state to perform the functions of a “cold reserve” in the Bulgarian energy system, without clarity on whether it even has the technical capacity to operate.
“Back in June 2019, we alerted the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC), the National Revenue Agency (NRA), and the Minister of Energy about the
suspicious facts surrounding the acquisition of TPP ‘Varna’
and its operations regarding the cold reserve. Since 2019, the institutions have not responded to the questions we raised. There have been no answers from the prosecution either regarding the former owner CEZ, which made a deal that effectively gifted the plant and the adjacent port, which was valued by independent valuers at 32 million euros in 2019. The prosecution even refuses to mention Mr. Ahmed Dogan by name,” commented Lora Georgieva from the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF).
Alongside the work on the new port, the upgrade of the thermal power plant (TPP) itself is also underway, allowing it to participate with three times the capacity in tenders for providing cold reserve. Expectations are that within less than two years, the previously non-operational energy complex owned by Dogan and its associated port will generate revenues in the tens of millions.
The text is republished from the website of the Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation.
