Sega contends in a front-page headline that the Ministry of Defense is short of cash for new appointments while job contests are underway for 500 openings. According to an unnamed source the problem is that 6 million euro has been taken from the money for wages and has been spent on increased rations of the army and of civilian staff of the Ministry, as of early April. On 15 March, the minister of defense said that until then the Interior Ministry staff was being paid 120 leva (60 euro) a month for food, while army staff was being paid 90 leva (45 euro) but that the amounts would be equalized. Sega remarks that the financial problem arises at a time when the army has made a fresh attempt to recruit personnel for its emptying ranks and that its fighting capacity is at stake after the failure to recruit nearly 740 soldiers in 2016.
In the meantime, there have been personnel changes at top positions of the Ministry of Defense recently, as the caretaker administration term is running out, the newspaper explains. Former defense minister Todor Tagarev was released on Friday from his post as Director of the Bulgaria Defense Institute. Sources from the Defense Ministry report that Tagarev has been released over "replacement of tactical and technical assignments"in theprojects for purchasing a new type of fighter and armored vehicles for the Land Forces. The personnel change took place after Gerb, the party that won the snap elections, called on the caretaker government to end all political dismissals and appointments. It has also transpired that caretaker Defense Minister Stefan Yanev has appointed the head of his office Rumen Vasilev to act as permanent secretary of defense – the highest civil post at the Ministry of Defense. A few urgent job contests are reportedly underway at the Ministry for key positions, and the deadlines for their completion have been fixed ahead of the new government’s taking office. Finally, Sega recalls that Gerb has warned that all unscrupulous appointments made by the caretaker administration will be revised by the new government.
Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov
English Daniela Konstantinova
A cold front will pass through the country overnight and tomorrow from the northwest . Rain will fall in many places in the western regions and the Danube Plain, and will quickly turn to snow in the high fields of western Bulgaria and the Balkan Range...
56% of Bulgarians prefer the new 51st National Assembly to form a government, even if this is at the cost of compromises, indicate data of a national representative survey conducted by the polling agency "Gallup International" for the "Referendum"..
A Memorandum of Cooperation between Cluster Trakia Economic Zone and Shenzhen Polytechnic University (SZPU) was signed in Beijing by Katya Staykova, CEO of Cluster Trakia Economic Zone, and Ms. LI Yue, Vice President of the Chinese higher education..
“It’s time to lift internal border controls now,” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson believes. In an interview with RFE/RL she..
The Constitutional Court has opened a case following the request by President Rumen Radev for the amendments to the Constitution, endorsed by the 49 th..
Romania and Bulgaria have a chance to join the Schengen area by land as of January 2025 , Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pinter said after an..
Mostly Cloudy
Partly cloudy, chance of rain
Partly Cloudy
Partly cloudy, chance of snow