site.btaMilitary Equipment Supplier Kintex Says It Has Not Been Audited

No audit has been performed of state-owned military equipment supplier Kintex EAD, according to an official letter received from its principal, the State Consolidation Company, Kintex said in a press release on Tuesday. 

On April 18, Economy and Industry Minister Korneliya Ninova ordered a replacement of Kintex's Board of Directors and Executive Director Alexander Mihailov. Ninova said the move came after a 2021 audit of the company by the Ministry's Inspectorate found a number of irregularities and a manifest conflict of interest involving Mihailov. Ninova also told the media that the case will be sent to the prosecuting magistracy.

Kintex's press release on Tuesday says that an audit had not been carried out because the Inspectorate did not have powers to conduct it in respect of a state-owned company. According to Kintex, the only documents on whose grounds the management was relieved are "anonymous allegations akin to denunciation by e-mail". "Ninova herself has admitted all this in a letter she sent to the prosecuting magistracy," Kintex says in the press release, which also contains an image of the letter in question. 

The company further says that in an opinion made available to it, the Ministry's Inspectorate stated in writing that performing such a check was not in its powers, so no check was carried out.

The press release also points out an assumption by Mihailov that his dismissal may be caused by the fact that he halted the siphoning off of millions of leva from Kintex, as well as what he referred to as pending dubious transactions. Kintex also says that no reasons have so far been announced about the dismissal of the other three members of the Board of Directors.