[size=85:3a64hmnn]novinite 04 May 2010

State Succeeds in Ousting Bulgaria's 'Sunny Beach' Board

The Bulgarian State finally succeed to replace the Managing Board of the country's largest beach resort “Sunny Beach” after a 9-year rule of the minority shareholders.


The shuffle was proposed by the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Traicho Traikov. The State is the majority owner with 75% of the shares.

The CEO, Malina Stratieva, the representative of the minority private shareholders, former weapons trader and now hotel owner, Mladen Mutafchiiski, and the State representative, Eli Anavi have all been ousted.

They are replaced by Traikov's Deputy for Tourism, Ivo Nikolov, Konstantin Lefterov, municipal councilman from the Black Sea town of Nessebar, the Deputy Regional Governor, Zlatko Dimitrov, among others.

Also on Tuesday, the branch organization of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party in Nessebar issued a declaration stating the replacement of the Board is an event that equals only the creation of the resort.

According to the declaration, in the last years, the vacation place has been subject to pillage, too much construction, scandals, conflict of interests, waste of resources from the privatization for ineffective projects, sale of land plots without pubic tenders, criteria and appraisals, violations in the renting of parking lots and much more.

Meanwhile, the Nessebar Town Hall stated their position that those hotel owners who, in the last 10 years, have turned the former “green resort” in “a mafia concrete ghetto” and at the same time managed State property must be held responsible.

“Sunny Beach is Bulgaria's prime example of the merge of organized crime, political lobbying, power and corruption,” the municipal statement reads, adding they were pressured to purchase the resort's infrastructure at unfavorable prices, which triggered scandals each season about the maintenance of the streets, lighting, green areas and other infrastructure.

“In addition, some, still unsolved, murders haunt our memories, such as the last one – of former Chair of the Municipal Council, Dimitar Yankov, who openly opposed Mladen Mutafchiiski,” the Nessebar Town Hall declaration reads.