More than €3.7 million was spent on salaries and other remuneration for a special unit at Bulgaria’s Ministry of Interior that former Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev ordered to be closed, describing it as a “parasitic” structure.
According to information provided by the ministry under the Access to Public Information Act, the unit was created in 2021 with six employees, but by the time it was closed through Demerdzhiev’s order on July 3, it had grown to 46 staff members.
The structure, informally referred to inside the ministry as the “isolator,” had been used over the years to accommodate various employees. Demerdzhiev said the unit included ministry officials who had lost the confidence of the leadership and were not assigned significant responsibilities.
“They are not given responsible tasks and the results of their work are little known,” Demerdzhiev said when announcing the decision to shut down the unit. He added that employees would be assessed individually and transferred to positions where their experience could be useful.
The former minister also said the ministry would identify other similar structures with duplicated functions or unclear roles and take measures to improve its organization.
