2024-07-08 03:15:43
Kiril Petkov had done his own PR on the back of the Bulgarian Development Bank. This was stated by the Minister of Innovation and Growth Assoc. Rosen Karadimov to bTV.
“When I took over the supervision, there was an uproar around the bank. Kiril Petkov had done his own PR on the bank’s back. Then I demanded from the management board a detailed report on the actions taken on the bank’s 7 major loans,” explained the minister.
“First of all, a principal never has the right to talk like that. The bank is a sensitive mechanism, it has external creditors. Do you know what happens in the external markets where the bank intervenes and where there are credits, after the sole owner of the capital says these things ? If you decided there was something wrong, take action, but not in the way it was done. It was personal PR.”
“It turned out that for a year since the management of the BBR was changed, Petkov replaced him, nothing was done about these loans. This made me think that this was more of a public action than a serious reflection on what’s happening there,” commented Karadimov.
“Then we created action protocols for all these loans. Of these 7 loans, 5 are repaid regularly and the bank is making a profit from them. There are two that are problematic. In one, the declared value is actually much lower than the value of the loan. The other is with overcollateralization. The collateral that the bank has is 1.5 over the loan amount, so there are no concerns about that loan,” he said.
“Then, when we ascertained all this, I realized that if the bank does not change its vision in the eyes of the public, it has no chance to develop as a powerful market public institution. Then, in the face of resistance, including internal, I formed an advisory board to the bank , which included the five national employers’ organizations, the two trade unions and the association of municipalities. Its purpose was to ensure public control over the bank’s activities.
According to him, after 1 year of operation of this council, there has not been a single scandal surrounding the bank.
Regarding the problems in health care and financing of hospitals, Minister Karadimov explained that the bank can grant investment loans to health institutions, it can also grant revolving loans. “If a hospital has a hundred units of debt to suppliers, it will pay 15% moratorium interest. If the bank finances it, and it pays the suppliers, it becomes its creditor. The interest rate will be much lower, the term will be longer and the cash flow of the health facility will be controlled by the creditor. This means that at some point the bank can become a guarantor for the efficient use of public funds,” he added.