Caretaker government replaces the heads of the Revenue Agency and the Customs

The current head of Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency, Galya Dimitova, has been dismissed for systematic poor perfomance of her duties, caretaker Minister of Finance, Assen Vassilev said on May 14 upon presenting his new team.

Rumen Spetsov has been appointed as the new head of the National Revenue Agency.

The finance minister criticised Dimitrova for underperformance in the tax audit work, because there was non-confirmation of the NRA audit acts, which speaks of low quality of work in the agency, Minister Vassilev said and cited that only 65% ​​have been confirmed at all instances, the rest were not.

He said that the Supreme Administrative Court had confirmed that the National Revenue Agency had unlawfully failed to act in protection of the personal data during the hacker attack, in which the names and addresses of millions of people in Bulgaria were leaked.

Caretaker minister of finance made several recommendations to the new head of the National Revenue Agency, one of which was to stop “terrorising” small companies and focus on large taxpayers.

Rumen Spetsov has more than 10 years of experience at the NRA until 2015 .He has been a consultant on finance and tax legislation in the recent years. He has expertise in tax policy and legislation and in national security protection. He graduated in Economics and Trade and in Internal Financial Control from the Academy of Economics in Svishtov (Northern Bulgaria) and in National Security Protection from the Academy of the Ministry of Interior.

In the period 2009 - 2015 he worked in the head office of the National Revenue Agency, and from 2001 to 2006 he worked in the Territorial Directorate of the National Revenue Agency in Dobrich. In recent years he has been a consultant in the field of finance and tax legislation.

Rumen Spetsov, Head of the National Revenue Agency

Apart from being an economist, Rumen Spetsov is also a multiple bodybuilding champion with over 20 years of experience in sports.

He participated in many tournaments in Bulgaria. He is a vice-republican champion in 2009, 2014 and 2015. He is a republican champion in bodybuilding for veterans in 2014 and 2015.

Spetsov is a medalist in a number of prestigious tournaments. Actively supports the preparation of athletes in various categories, who have won prizes in Bulgaria and abroad. Personal and online coach. Licensed judge at the Bulgarian Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness and one of the three coaches in the first fitness reality show broadcast on BNT HD - "Super Change 2" (2016).

Pavel Tonev, Head of the Bulgarian Customs Agency

Pavel Tonev has beeeen appointed the head of the Bulgarian Customs Agency. He replaced Georgi Kostov. The motives of the Minister of Finance for the change are low standards of the quality of work.

The Customs Agency does not meet the standards, is the conclusion of a letter from OLAF, and as of yesterday it became clear that Bulgaria owes money.

"55 m euros, which Bulgaria must provide and eventually reimburse to the European budget," the caretaker minister said.

As for whether there will be a budget update, the finance minister said it would be clear within several days.