The PVU projects related to schools and kindergartens are a priority.
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by the Mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev and expressed his expectation that the government "will focus on the national plan and that these over 10 billion leva will appear in the Bulgarian economy, instead of GERB making insinuations about what would eventually happen in the capital":
"All PVU projects related to schools and kindergartens in Sofia have been submitted, with the exception of one - for a kindergarten in "Mladost", we have already signed contracts. So whether these funds will be lost will be seen in time and I was not as convinced as they were that this thing will happen. It is good that they look at the bigger picture, to protect the funds under the Public Procurement Act, to make the necessary reforms to make it happen, and if there is a delay in Sofia, I will take responsibility. If there is a delay, it is due to the fact that last year they adopted changes to the Public Procurement Act and for 8 months there was no clarity on who can and should assign. They fixed this with amendments to the law and the process was unblocked. Everything that depends on us, we do extremely conscientiously. I have told the team that everything related to the Public Procurement Act projects is an extremely priority".
He confirmed that education is one of his election promises, which he is determined to fulfill:
"Let's find a lasting solution for these 9,000 places in kindergartens that are missing. Dozens of kindergartens and nurseries are being built, but this is not enough. Since the number of children who enroll each year is also increasing, by 1,000, even with these 4,500 places that we will add based on everything that is currently being built, another 9,000 are needed. What we are doing is land acquisition, expropriation, and design of kindergartens so that this infrastructure can be there and this problem can be solved, so that we don't drag it out to every election.
The competition for the chief architect of Sofia will not be dominated by political interests for the first time, Terziev was categorical:
"In the last competition, there were many municipal councilors, the chairwoman of the competition committee was not even Mayor Fandakova, and it was highly politicized. Now, three people come from the Municipality to the competition committee, I have control over them, I am the chairman of the committee, we need one person with a legal education and one who is the head of "Human Resources" in the Sofia Municipality. I have no control over who the others are. It was important for me that the rules of the competition were clear and that it was public, so that each candidate could see how strong he was and what his vision was for simplifying administrative processes and digitizing. I want a person who is 80% a very good manager and administrator, to organize this system and for it to work in an understandable way for everyone who is concerned with it. To have a vision for the development of the city, but not for this to be his main responsibility, that is assigned to the mayor. ... I think it is very clear what kind of person we are looking for".