Head of Work Capability Assessment Commission was arrested for taking bribes

The head of the Work Capability Assessment Commission in Lovech (central North Bulgaria). Donka Minkova, was arrested on 31^st of January at a time she was receiving a bribe from an intermediary to help for issuing documents with false content. The intermediary was also detained. Some 13,000 BGN were found in him. The scheme has been investigated by the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lovech for a year. During the arrests and searches, police officers from the unit for combatting organized crime found numerous documents. According to Ivailo Spiridonov, the anti-mafia director, the scheme operating in Lovech is also valid for other regions of the country. This illicit business caters to members of entire villages and huge neighbourhoods, who virtually live on pensions and benefits granted on the basis of false disability decisions.

Witnesses are being interviewed, some of them of Roma origin, who had received unlawful decisions from the Work Capability Assessment Commission in Lovech in the last two years, most of them being with high percentage of disability.

Valentin Valkov, District Prosecutor: In a large number of cases, the individuals who received such decisions did not have any diseases.

Prosecutor Valkov said that all members of the work capability assessment commission in Lovech were involved in the scheme. In one of the options, the persons in need of work capability assessment turned to an intermediary and for a certain amount of money their percentage of disability was increased. In other cases, intermediaries recruited such persons, mostly of Roma origin, guided them, told them what amounts of money were needed and that money was given to the respective medical committee.

The tariffs are from 200 to 1,000 BGN, and up to 2,500 BGN for other such commissions in the country, said the anti-mafia chief Ivaylo Spiridonov. Spiridonov said that unfortunately this activity was turned into business. We are not talking about people who would like to get such pensions. We are talking about intermediaries who go and offer to individuals to become such. This way, huge amounts of money from the state funds allocated for really disabled persons are siphoned off, he added.