„I received a warning. And it is just one subsequent episode in a long series of attempts to put pressure on me, which began the moment I entered the Ministry of Finance”.
This was stated to NOVA NEWS by the former Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Andrey Tsekov, a deputy from the PP.
„Up to this moment and to every moment in which my activities were aimed at preventing schemes that obviously „smell” of corruption, there was always some form of threat or pressure. During the time I was in the Ministry of Finance, these were anonymous signals to the Economic Police, the Economic Police. As a result, checks were carried out, my entire family was "called out", said Tsekov, who is in the Ministry of Finance's department for "Public Procurement Control".
“The specific reason was the report I compiled with a working group, which found that billions were spent on major repairs under the guise of ongoing repairs. That's when the signals in question occurred. After a year of harassment of my family, the proceedings ended with conclusions that there were no violations”, said Tsekov.
As a regional minister, his first act was to terminate public procurement, in his words, due to violations. Tsekov explained that the orders were worth 4 billion. Then he received warnings.
“Messages like: “You have a nice family, it would be a shame if he suffered”, “Your son is a good football player, it would be a great shame if something happened to him and he stopped playing sports”. A media attack has begun from media outlets associated with Peevski's name. I have filed cases, I have 5 convictions”, said Tsekov.
“For several months now, there has been a series of suspicious cars in front of my wife's office, with suspicious people who spend the whole day there, demonstratively photographing her when she goes out. I checked them. The common thing is that they do not have “Civil Liability” insurance. This is either on purpose so that they cannot be checked, or they belong to one of the specialized services. I do not know which one. I have received an assumption that they were sent by the deputy director of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Prevention, Kalin Litov, who was recently removed from the Ministry of Interior system. I have received such an assumption from people who, let's say, know how this system works," said Tsekov.
“On Thursday, I received two warnings that I would need personal security for me and my family. This happened through my acquaintances. The final touch in the whole system was that an acquaintance of mine met with a person from the top of the DPS-NN, at the request of the person in question, to which he received the following message: “Tell Andrey Tsekov and Kiril Petkov to stop mentioning the name Ivan Mirinski, because we will make people dependent on us give false testimony to bring charges against them”. I will not tell you the name at this stage. I will tell it to the competent authorities, the moment he agrees to confirm it to the specific authorities,” said Tsekov. He added that the person in question is not part of the PP.
“The system works through fear. I personally am not afraid”, he also said.
He said that his wife has had a consulting business since 2014. “She writes projects that are applied for European funding, and also carries out project reporting. 99% of her clients are private companies”, said Tsekov. “Her participation in the consortium for strengthening a landslide in Svoge is only related to the reporting of the project. At the moment I entered the Ministry of Finance, her activities had ended. She subsequently left the consortium so that there would be no doubt of a conflict of interest. Based on an anonymous signal, this was checked by the Countermeasures Commission and I have a conclusion and a decision establishing that there was no conflict of interest”, said Tsekov.
“In 2015, I last worked in a construction company. I have not had any relations with them for 10 years. A minister does not make payments. They are made by the RIA, by the water and sewerage operators,” he added.