Бизнес

The four working days before Christmas Eve, workers from the municipal firm Stroycom protested in front of the municipality building. V.I.D. Mayor Stoyan Dulev and the authorities of the Ministry of Interior did not allow civil disobedience with blocking the road of the bridge over the Mutnitsa River. The workers complied with the provision, although they have been without salaries for months, and the company is going bankrupt as the municipality does not pay for their cleaning of the city.
On the first day of the protest (20 December), the demands were stated: the municipality to bring in the much needed 160,000 leva, voted and approved by the Municipal Council to cover the salaries and cleaning costs since August. Nor v.i.d. Mayor St. Dulev, nor any of his deputies met with the protesters. On Tuesday, Mr. Dulev went on sick leave, and Deputy Mayor Recep Hodzhov accepted for a meeting representatives of the initiative committee of the protest and the manager of Stroycom Eng. Kutov. The meeting took place violently, the media were not allowed, and a police officer was guarding the office of the deputy mayors. After the conversation, Mr. Hodzhov, instead of announcing the position of the municipality, preferred to habituate and expel journalists, slamming the door of the cabinet with an enviable swing. Deputy Mayor Sonia Chavdarova, before whom the protesters also exposed the problem, remained completely silent.
On Wednesday, R. Hodzhov, however, deigned to speak with the protesters. On behalf of St. Duev he committed the decision of the Municipal Council to allocate 160 000 leva not to be suspended and to seek an opinion from the Court of Auditors on what can be paid. (The case is too complicated, as there is a contract for cleaning between the municipality and Beev and Beev, but at the same time there is a court case for its invalidation, which deliberately with no appearance of the municipality and Beev and Beev. The mess has stirred up a v.i.d. Mayor Stoyan Dulev, who signed with Beev and Beev with the so-called. "pre-implementation" and after not complying with two definitions for suspension of the contract by the court, it came to the situation two companies to clean Velingrad and claim money from the municipal treasury).
On Thursday, tensions escalated as before Christmas people understandably wanted to get the money they made. A dumpster was parked in front of the municipality with a container loaded on top of it. Workers pounded on the container, on buckets and tins and chanted "We want the money", "Every day will be like this until the salary", "Down with Dulev!" and sang "The fight has happened, our hearts are beating". Learning that that evening was the administration's Christmas banquet, people started shouting "We'll come to the banquet" and vowed that they would take their children to dinner at the mayor's table as well.
Eventually, on the afternoon of December 23, the protesters achieved partial success: Deputy Mayor R. Hodzhov has signed for Stroycom to be transferred money for the activity in the period from 1 to 9 August (the date on which a contract was signed with Beev and Beev). The amount reached people to get 50 leva to put something on their festive tables. But the financial situation of Stroycom will certainly be a theme of 2005.
Elena Baeva