site.btaContinue the Change Suggests Prompt Payment of 50% of Money Overdue to Construction Companies

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Tuesday that his Continue the Change party suggested that construction companies be paid promptly over 600 million leva, about half of the outstanding payments, after approval by Parliament. He talked to reporters on Hemus Motorway near the village of Yana where he met with the Association of Small and Medium-sized Carriers.

Petkov added that the remaining 50 per cent of funds owed for road construction and maintenance should be discussed by parliamentary committees once experts have verified that those works were completed. "The last thing we want to do is pay for works which either were not done or are incomplete," the Prime Minister commented.

The proposal has been sent to the power-sharing There Is Such a People party, Democratic Bulgaria coalition and Bulgarian Socialist Party, and is expected to be debated in Parliament on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the Bulgarian Branch Chamber Roads (BBCR) said that as a non-profit association representing road construction employers at national level it had not been invited to a meeting with Petkov.

The BBCR said it had not been informed about the Prime Minister's meeting at the village of Yana announced by the government information service on Tuesday.

The BBCR has sent several letters asking for a meeting with Petkov but since it has had no reply, the organization asked the Prime Minister to meet its representatives in the square in front of the Parliament building on Wednesday, when it is organizing a nationwide protest.

The BBCR said in a media release last week that the Road Infrastructure Agency had been forced to halt the operation of the road construction industry as it has not commissioned or paid for works under legally conforming contracts for road repairs and maintenance for nearly a year now.