Ekaterina Stoilova

“We have decreased the tax”, “we realized a record-breaking surplus”, “we faced the crisis being in a very good condition” –this is the way the ex-premier Sergei Stanishev and his ministers define the legacy they are leaving after 4 years administration. On Wednesday the 41st National Assembly will vote for the impeachment of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the National Movement Simeon II and the Movement for Rights and Liberty. The political assessment of that administration was made at the Parliament Election in the beginning of July, when PSP sustained its greatest loss for years, and NMS was not a Parliamentary power any more. However how do business and economics analyzers define the last 4-year mandate? What, according to them, did the Government succeed to achieve, where did it fail and why? With these words “Dnevnik” searched for the opinion of two macro experts and two business representatives.

Did the business conditions improve in the last four years?

- The macroeconomic stability was kept to some point , but certainly the business conditions were not improved.

Did the Government meet the previous expectations?

- The best step was the Flat Tax introduction, but nothing more was implemented. The State Food Agency was not established which we have been waiting for eight years. Bulgaria is the only country in Europe which does not have such body and it reflects on the whole branch, feeds the grey economy and blocks the development of the legally working people. The food Value Added Tax was not decreased as it is a practice worldwide, although the branch insisted on that many times. There are few countries without different stakes, but the logic of the Cabinet was that different stakes are difficult to administrate, and its opinion prevailed.

Which aspect of the Cabinet activity do you evaluate as positive and which as negative?

- It is difficult for me to recall any positive aspects, I can recall mostly negative. The crime prone environment intensified and as businessmen we feel unsure not only for ourselves, but also for our employees and our business. We have the impression that state institutions are used to put pressure on certain companies and to tolerate others.

What did not happen especially for your business these years?

- It is not serious to explain our success or our failure with the government in authority. Basically our business is defined by the management team and in this aspect we have achieved our goals. Our biggest problem was connected to the biological cattle-breeding, which we have begun to develop for a year and a half. Our dialog with the administration was at a primitive level, one neither knew when he would receive his funds, nor if his project met the requirements. Ridiculously our project was rejected by the authorities, only because there was not a second signature on one of the pages. These pages were hundreds and it was obvious that the mistake is just technical, but the official was so bureaucratic that refused the whole amount of the funds. He did not care that we had had great expenses for biological cattle breeding before. It is not normal.

Has the corruption pressure increased or decreased and at what level?

- In my opinion it has not changed at all levels. The corruption practice is massive and I think it is time to take counter-measure against it. I do not even know why it is called corruption pressure, because there is corruption when the demanding part offers money to pass its claim. We use the more accurate word blackmail. That is when the institution does not let you go through a permit regimen with the motive how impossible is your problem to solve. This is a real racket.

How can this practice change?

- With very strict and systematic control over employees’ behavior. A good example is attending a desk, the one however we have seen neither at Agriculture Fund, nor at the other agricultural services. At the same time Blagoevgrad Municipality manages to set up and develop such a desk. They have strict regulations how much time takes an employee to process a permit regimen, without meeting the contractor. In due time one receives a permit, a well-grounded refusal, or directions about what he has missed. The state administration works completely differently. You are sent back tens of times for the least significant details, without any warning the administration resorts to a silent refusal. I have never received well-grounded refusal from this Ministry. At the same time there are numerous companies which receive permits as if “from nowhere”, and they do not have explanation how they have received it. They are just a part of the nomenclature and that is the main reason for people to vote against the previous coalition.

How do you evaluate the retiring government in the beginning of the crisis?

- They behaved rather inadequately. At first they declared that the crisis would not affect us, after that they insist on the opposite. Allegedly they accepted a program for counteraction, but the money did not go where they were destined for. I think they used highly professional personnel, one of whom is Milena Plugchieva. She weakened Brussels strike, but she was evaluated negatively, which she did not deserve.

What do you expect from the new government?

 - To fulfill what they promise. Namely to make the legal system work, to stop corruption at all levels, to work more actively with civil society. If they do this, their success will be complete.