The European Public Prosecutor's Office in Sofia has charged four suspects with fraud through a project for the design and construction of signaling and telecommunications systems for the Bulgarian railway networks, BNR reported.
This is a project on the section between Plovdiv and Burgas worth over 94.5 million euros, financed with European funds.
The contract for the implementation of the project has been awarded to a consortium of 4 companies. Two managers of an Italian company and one of a Bulgarian company, who are part of it, have been charged with public procurement fraud.
A former director of the National Company "Railway Infrastructure" has also been charged.
A bail of 50 thousand euros has been imposed on the three accused and 5 thousand on the fourth. The manager of the Bulgarian company is prohibited from leaving the country.
According to the investigation, the legal representatives of the companies forming the consortium submitted false information to the National Railways Commission in order to illegally obtain European funds.
In particular, they declared that one of the companies had experience in global mobile communications systems in railway transport, which gave them the opportunity to win the tender. However, according to the evidence, none of the four companies has the necessary experience.
During the work, it was established that the former General Director of NRIC signed a contract and authorized the payments, even though he knew that the information submitted was not true.