„I will propose a change in the financing of theaters I will be the strict dog that will guard the treasury of the Ministry of Culture. There will be stricter control, while the methodology for financing theaters is like this.“
This was what the Minister of Culture Marian Bacheva told bTV.
He explained that there is a need to modernize the way in which theaters are financed.
„This methodology was created 10 years ago and was probably working then. It worked in the sense in which it was created, but for something to progress, it undoubtedly goes through cataclysms. The methodology by which the performing arts are financed is obviously no longer working as well as we would like and it turns out that those who work more are at a greater loss“, said Bachev.
He also added that the director of the Pazardzhik Theater was disciplinaryally dismissed in order to calm the theater down.
„Where ADFI and DANS were involved, all roads led to the fact that I had to make this decision“, explained Bachev.
He also said that thanks to Petkova and Zhelyazkov, he managed to urgently pay the theaters 7 million, with 7.5 million left.
„The system is such that in the last quarter they spent without knowing that they had reached the 120% limit, and no one said, This will change, there will be a notification, everything for overheads and salaries has been paid. And we want there to be some predictability and we will work in this direction. We see that this system is working in a good direction and together with the Union of Artists and other organizations in the field of culture, we are already thinking in this direction to have predictability, as there was during the COVID pandemic, so that people know what to spend and how to produce“, said Bachev.
He also said how he received the offer to be a minister. Slavi Trifonov called him and convinced him that he could take responsibility for this job.
„We met and he offered me, I agreed“, said Bachev.
His chief of staff will be Diana Mladenova, who was an executive producer in Slavi Trifonov's team.
„She is the person who knows every contract and how every number is going. So this is a very important person for me. She has administrative experience and is someone I can trust. I will be the strict dog in the MK, but she will be the person who will offer me all the things that have to be signed, very well reviewed, so that there are no problems with misunderstandings of any financial and legal nature,“ he said.