The actions of the MEW are a follow-up of signals to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry, with which was requested that another attempt for passing large-scale projects, modelled after the so-called salami-slicing method, and aiming at evading ecological norms, be inspected. The Eco-Ministry inspection establishes that the project is illegally been broken into smaller parts by the investors, who turn up to be related persons, and that at the approving of the separate parts by RIEW Sofia a number of violations of nature protection law are committed.
This case is indicative that in order the quality and the objectiveness of the work of state institutions to be improved, especially in conditions of powerful corruption pressure, a constant civil control and political will by the authorities are needed.
History of the case
The correspondence in question by RIEW Sofia is on the construction of a holiday village on five adjacent properties on a total area of over 20 decares in Visoki Rid area, village of Kovachevtsi, Samokov Municipality, discloses a potential corruption scheme at the Eco-Inspectorate.
After in 2011 the ex-director of RIEW Eng. Stefan Borisov requests an all-round environment impact assessment of the investment proposal for the holiday village, in 2014 the new director of RIEW Sofia Eng. Irena Petkova coordinates the investment proposal without eco-assessment, ignoring outright the motives of her predecessor of 2011.
In 2011, with decisions along the procedure prescribed by EPA and Biodiversity Act, the director of RIEW Sofia decrees an environmental assessment and a compatibility assessment for the detailed Development Plans of the five Investment Proposals for holiday buildings submitted to RIEW by various contracting authorities but on one and the same day, July 22, 2010, to be conducted.
In 2014, with five new decisions by the director of RIEW Eng. Irena Petkova, the initial procedure for environmental assessment and compatibility assessment of the five detailed Development Plans is cancelled, because, again on one and the same day, July 7, 2014, the contracting authorities withdraw the detailed Development Plans. A month later, again on one and the same day, 13.08.2014, the contracting authorities submit for the second time their initial investment proposals for the five adjacent properties. Contrary to the requirements of the EPA and the Biodiversity Act, with five letters from the end of 2014, the director of RIEW coordinates the five IP, informing the contracting authorities that IP are not any more subject to procedures for assessing the need of compatibility assessment as per the Biodiversity Act, which in practice means that IP are not subject to compliance with the EPA either. If EPA and Biodiversity Act were applied correctly by the director of RIEW Sofia, then the investment proposals should have been subjected to procedures for assessment of the need for environment impact assessment and compatibility assessment, as much as the regulation criteria for applying these procedures as per 2014 do not vary significantly from the corresponding normative criteria in 2011.
The scheme described above, aiming to influence the competent body to “save” the contracting authorities of the IP the mandatory coordination procedures as per EPA and the Biodiversity Act, which often require additional time and funding, is considered an indication of the presence of a systematically applied corruption scheme. Unfortunately, this scheme not only offers certain contracting authorities a competitive advantage, but also creates a risk for a considerable negative impact on the environment, in this case Vitosha.
The Eco-Ministry has returned a project for a holiday village on the bio-corridor of bears between Vitosha and Plana
