Бизнес

At a press conference on Friday, 14 January, Atanas Vodev made a brief account of the period during which he was the temporary mayor of the municipality. The main priority was the closure of the budget year in which the municipality has no outstanding bills thanks to the solid subsidy of nearly 900,000 levs from the Ministry of Finance. The subsidy was secured in the last days of 2004. with the active cooperation of the National Association of Municipalities.
Mr. Vodev made many serious remarks about the way of holding positions in the Municipal Administration and changes in job descriptions that contradict the unified classification. I have no concern for the operational performance of the duties by the employees, but the unupdated structure, the job schedule and the unfilled positions should be adjusted, Mr. Vodev said and reported that many employees work under stress.
Another major problem facing the municipality emerged the opacity of budget management in 2004. Repeated questions of municipal councilors and requests for up-to-date information remained unanswered, and thus a bunch of decisions are made that subsequently cannot be implemented because of lack of funds.
Asked whether the management of the financial resource of the municipality was reasonable, Atanas Vodev pointed out that the budget of BGN 7,600,000 was adopted by the Municipal Council without commenting on a single figure and that in mid-2004. The deficit was as expected - 500-600 thousand levs. The municipality is seriously harmed by the situation around the public procurement of waste disposal, the whole case will cost at least another 500,000 leva. No matter who wins the elections, there should be transparency, discussion and meeting of points of view in the management of municipal finances, and not as so far under no contract not to ask for an opinion of the Economic Commission. A reference is currently being drawn into how many lawsuits the municipality was involved in in 2004. and which ones are of priority municipal interest. For legal services, nearly BGN 40,000 were paid by the municipal treasury.
I have no information that the Municipality of Velingrad has made actions in court to cancel the contract with the Water Association "Eurovod Commerce", the temporary mayor replied to a question whether the former management team has fulfilled the decision of the councilors to start a court procedure for terminating the contract. The problem is a bit exaggerated; it is good if there is a way to reach an agreement between the parties on joint activities or to terminate the contract, Mr Vodev commented.
Before going on official leave as a mayoral candidate, Atanas Vodev wrote a letter to the Minister of Finance Milen Velchev asking the municipality to receive an additional BGN 60,000 to conduct the elections. By law, partial elections for mayor are paid from the municipal budget, but according to Mr. Vodev we can hope for understanding from the Finance Minister.
Elena Baeva