Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov submitted to the registry of the 51st National Assembly reasoned requests for permission to bring to criminal liability two members of parliament – Bozhidar Bozhanov and Kiril Petkov, upon proposals from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office (SGP). This concerns two separate crimes committed in different periods.
With regard to Bozhidar Bozhanov, the request of the Prosecutor General states that evidence has been collected of a crime committed by him.
In the period from 20.05.2022 to 17.06.2022 in the city of Sofia in his capacity as an official holding a responsible official position – Minister of e-Government and public procurement awarder, Bozhidar Bozhanov violated his official duties under the Classified Information Protection Act and the Regulations for its implementation and under the Internal Rules of the Ministry of e-Government for public procurement. B. Bozhanov provided the executive director of the Agency “Electronic Government Infrastructure“ with a flash drive file representing a technical specification, and instructed it to be used to conduct a public procurement for nearly 18 million leva.
The technical specification was prepared in violation of the established procedure guaranteeing information security. Thus, an advantage was given to a consortium of commercial companies in participating and ranking as a contractor for the public procurement. According to the evidence collected by the SGP, the purpose was to obtain a benefit for another person – to facilitate and provide an advantage to the consortium in its participation in the public procurement, and the act could have resulted in significant harmful consequences – to spend public funds in an opaque manner, to create conditions for distorting competition, to undermine citizens' trust in the Ministry of e-Government and to endanger the cybersecurity of the state administration.
The proposal of the SGP to the Prosecutor General states that in the summary minutes of a meeting of the commission, which was supposed to consider, evaluate and rank the submitted bids for the public procurement, the signatures for “chairman“ and “prepared and printed“ were not signed by the relevant persons. Regarding the signatures, a partial similarity with Bozanov's handwriting was found. Evidence was also collected that B. Bozanov accessed the computer on which the protocol was technically prepared through the account of an employee who was ordered to leave the premises while typing the text.
With regard to Kiril Petkov, the request of the Prosecutor General states that there is sufficient evidence of an attempted coercion - a crime under Art. 143, para. 1, sentence 1, alt. 2, in conjunction with Art. 18, para. 1, sentence 2 of the Criminal Code.
On 02.10.2023, in an establishment in Sofia, Kiril Petkov attempted to force Alexander Yolovski, Minister of Electronic Governance, to do something against his will. According to the prosecutor's office, Petkov aggressively told Alexander Yolovski that he must coordinate his actions with Bozanov when he initiates dismissals of people appointed by Bozanov, as well as everything he does as a minister, including important strategic issues, conducting public procurement and any award procedures. He told him that he must make all important decisions after Bozanov's prior approval, as well as hold weekly meetings with him. Petkov threatened that otherwise there would be negative consequences for Yolovski in his professional and personal life, the prosecutor's office also wrote.
The pre-trial proceedings were initiated by a decree of the State Prosecutor's Office dated October 29, 2023, based on data from an inspection assigned to the Anti-Corruption Commission following a signal from a group of MPs about pressure exerted by K. Petkov and B. Bozanov on the Minister of Electronic Governance to award activities worth 650 million leva to specific companies. without applying the rules of the Public Procurement Act.
A significant amount of evidence has been collected in the case - numerous witnesses have been questioned, relevant documents have been submitted, expert opinions have been appointed and prepared, traffic data have been collected with the permission of the court, materials from an inspection by the State Financial Inspection Agency, carried out at the Ministry of Electronic Governance by order of the State Prosecutor's Office, materials from the State Agency "National Security" have also been submitted.
In view of the provision of Art. 70, para. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, for the prosecution of a member of parliament for a crime of a general nature committed by him, his written consent or permission from the National Assembly is required.