Anti-Corruption Fund’s investigations won two of the three awards at the prestigious “Radostina Konstantinova” competition for investigative journalism

The investigations of the Anti-Corruption Fund “War for Corpses” by Genka Shikerova and “The KTB Case: The Missing Names” by Nikolay Staykov won two of the three awards in 2019 at the prestigious competition for investigative journalism “Radostina Konstantinova.” The third prize went to Teodora Trifonova from bTV for her series “Houses without guests.”

The competition, held for the ninth time this year, commemorates Radostina Konstantinova, a reputed Bulgarian investigative journalist and publisher. It is the only prize for investigative journalism in Bulgaria, awarded to an author or a team for “their high professionalism, objectivity and impartiality, and the efficiency and public significance of their publication or broadcast.”

For 2019, the jury of the competition unanimously awarded the grand prize to the investigation “War for Carcasses” by Genka Shikerova. The investigation, realized in cooperation with the ACF, traces the spending of nearly BGN 30 million by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency between 2018 and 2019 on the disposal of animal carcasses. In violation of the Public Procurement Act, The Agency paid the money to only two companies for the processing of record quantities of carcasses with mobile incinerators whose capacity turned out to be many times lower than declared. The idea for this investigation was rejected by Nova TV, and a little later, Genka Shikerova was fired from the media.

“Genka Shikerova’s investigation provoked a broad public reaction in 2019. It could not see the light of day on Nova TV. Still, it was realized with the support of the Anti-Corruption Fund and showed how public procurement works, “said Luba Rizova, chairwoman of the competition’s jury, when announcing the award.

The ACF co-founder and investigative journalist Nikolay Staykov also received the Radostina Konstantinova award for his video series “The KTB Case: The Missing Names,” created in collaboration with Mihail Mihailov (video and editing) and Veselin Kalanovski (voice).

The series consists of several short documentaries presenting the results of Staykov’s analysis of 200,000 pages of documents collected by the Prosecution Office during the investigation into the bankruptcy of Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB). The files include the names of many politicians, public figures, media owners, and government officials who have not been questioned by the prosecutors. The investigation raises many serious questions about the Prosecution Office’s work, the banking system, the links between politicians, senior officials, and big business in Bulgaria.

“The awards are a recognition of the exceptional mastery and courage of the two authors we work with,” said the ACF director Boyko Stankushev. “They are also an acknowledgment of the uncompromising work of the Anti-Corruption Fund’s entire team in detecting and uncovering corruption in Bulgaria and give us the motivation to continue.”

You can see the two investigations on the ACF’s YouTube channel:

War for Carcasses (with English subtitles), The KTB Case: The Missing Names (with English subtitles).