08.02.2019
Prime Minister Boyko Borissov participated in a working meeting at the Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime at the Ministry of Interior, where the systems for counteracting smuggling in fuels were presented. At the meeting, it was demonstrated how the processes of import and production of fuels are tracked by means of 24-hour video surveillance, thermal cameras, FM radio systems, radars, and the automatic identification system AIS. The full record of vessel movements is also tracked.
Control and monitoring are carried out jointly by the Customs Agency, the National Revenue Agency, the State Enterprise "Port Infrastructure", the Executive Agency "Maritime Administration", the authorities of the Ministry of Interior, the Interdepartmental Coordination Center for Counteracting the Trafficking and Control of the Movement of Goods and Goods at Risk at the Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime, the State Agency for Metrology and Technical Surveillance, the Automobile Administration Executive Agency, and the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology. The goal is that all services perform immediate control actions, place objects and companies under monitoring, and impose coercive administrative measures and sanctions if violations are detected.
For the period 2017-2018 more than 12,700 inspections were carried out by the Customs Agency, the National Revenue Agency, and the State Agency for Metrology and Technical Surveillance. A total of 722 administrative violations have been established and documented, 159 premises have been sealed, and technical surveillance equipment has been placed in 1400 vehicles. For the same period over 1.5 million liters of low quality fuel has been withdrawn from the market by the State Agency for Metrology and Technical Surveillance.
"We want, since fuel is a commodity, to have every Bulgarian citizen know that nothing is stolen or has been interfered with from the moment it is produced to the moment it goes to the gas station,” said Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. He noted that a lot of efforts are needed to enable all services to exchange information. "We have been trying to accomplish this since 2015 and there has been a very strong resistance," added Borissov and highlighted that society now needs to be assured that if someone commits a crime, the law enforcement authorities will fulfil their duties.
The Minister of Interior Mladen Marinov, the Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov, the Minister of Economy Emil Karanikolov, the Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Rossen Jeliazkov, the Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, as well as representatives of the Budget and Finance Committee at the National Assembly, the security services, the Customs Agency, and the National Revenue Agency also participated at the working meeting.
