From Subcontractor to Subcontractor: Who Is Actually Repairing the Trakia Motorway?

The Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) has uncovered a potential scheme involving unlawful subcontracting in connection with repair works on the Trakia Motorway in June this year. The chain of companies involved includes a firm linked to alleged underworld boss Hristoforos Amanatidis, known as Taki, as well as companies implicated in the scandal over the alleged siphoning of more than BGN 54 million earmarked for the construction of the Hemus Motorway.

The multimillion-euro project was awarded by the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) to the state-owned company Avtomagistrali EAD, despite the fact that the company lacks the necessary capacity to carry out this type of work — a fact established by the Bulgarian National Audit Office as early as 2021.

Avtomagistrali, in turn, signed a subcontracting agreement with Nivel Stroy EOOD. The company, based in the town of Breznik and linked to Hristoforos Amanatidis–Taki, expanded rapidly during Boyko Borissov’s third government and was awarded lucrative road construction contracts in the final days of the Zhelyazkov government.

Social media posts reveal that other contractors are working on site — Groma Hold EOOD and European Roads AD. For two years, prosecutors investigated executives of the two companies in connection with the alleged siphoning of millions intended for the construction of the Hemus Motorway. Ultimately, they avoided criminal charges following intervention by senior members of the Prosecutor’s Office.

“Avtomagistrali EAD demonstrably lacks the capacity to carry out repair works of this scale. ACF has previously raised concerns that, despite this, RIA has repeatedly awarded such works to the state-owned company. In practice, this allows the legislation intended to guarantee the transparent, competitive and efficient spending of public funds to be circumvented.

“In this case, there is no economic rationale for the same work to be subcontracted multiple times. We can only speculate as to what percentage of the value of the contracts actually goes towards the repair works and how much is diverted to companies at the different levels of the subcontracting chain,” said Sofia Zheleva, legal expert at ACF.

ACF’s Hemusgate investigation revealed how, in the autumn of 2023, prosecutor Ivaylo Zanev of the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office was preparing to charge Hristo Savev, sole owner of Groma Hold EOOD, the company’s manager Viktor Velev, and Margarita Popivanova, Executive Director of European Roads AD, with forming and leading an organised criminal group that had allegedly embezzled BGN 54 million intended for the construction of the Hemus Motorway. Shortly before the indictment was due to be filed in court, Ivaylo Zanev and the other prosecutors working on the investigation were removed from the case. As a result, the case never reached the courtroom.

The Hemusgate scandal does not appear to have hindered the two companies’ participation in public procurement contracts worth millions of euros.

A review of the Bulgarian Public Procurement Register (CAIS EOP) concerning the public procurement procedure for repairs to the Hemus, Trakia and Struma motorways, reference No. 00044-2023-0018, with a total value of EUR 365,927,524.38, shows that Avtomagistrali EAD is the contractor for Lot 3: Trakia Motorway. The only published subcontracting agreement is with Nivel Stroy EOOD. The contract reveals that almost all of the activities awarded to Avtomagistrali — five out of six — were subcontracted to the private company. These include all construction, repair and maintenance works on the Trakia Motorway.

However, social media posts published by Groma Hold and European Roads in June 2026 show that these companies are themselves actively carrying out repair works on site along the Trakia Motorway. Videos posted online show workers and machinery bearing the distinctive markings of the two companies.

In its response to ACF, European Roads claims that it is carrying out the construction and repair works on the Trakia Motorway as an official subcontractor of the state-owned company Avtomagistrali EAD, on the basis of contractual arrangements between the parties.

“What is more, European Roads AD was nominated by Avtomagistrali EAD as an official subcontractor as early as the public procurement procedure itself,” the company stated, adding: “For the purposes of carrying out the repairs, our company has engaged additional specialised machinery from external contractors…”

“ACF cannot verify European Roads AD’s claim because no such subcontracting agreement has been published on the electronic public procurement portal. Nor was one provided to us by the company itself,” Sofia Zheleva commented. “Even if such an agreement does exist, however, the question remains: why does Avtomagistrali EAD win a public procurement contract when more than 80% of the activities under it are carried out not by the company itself, but by a subcontractor?”

Interestingly, one of the external contractors that European Roads AD, in turn, claims to be working with is Groma Hold EOOD — a company that was itself a bidder in the public procurement procedure for the repair of the Trakia Motorway. Although it did not win the contract, the company is evidently involved in the repairs as an additional contractor.

In its official response to ACF, Groma Hold stated that it “…participates in the construction and repair works on the Trakia Motorway as a company providing machinery and equipment, on the basis of existing contractual relations with European Roads AD following an invitation from the company.”

However, a social media post by the company dated 24 June clearly shows that Groma Hold’s involvement is not limited to providing machinery and equipment, and that its employees are carrying out repair works on site. In the text accompanying the video, the company specifically describes the works it is performing:

“Today we are completing the installation of the geogrid along the section; tomorrow we will finish laying the binder course, and at the beginning of next week we will begin laying the asphalt wearing course.”

These activities, however, are in breach of the contract between RIA and Avtomagistrali EAD dated 1 October 2024. Under Section XI, Article 18, a subcontractor is not permitted to further subcontract activities under the contract. The only exception applies to the supply of goods, materials or equipment. Supply does not include installation, which in this case would mean laying road surfacing or carrying out construction and installation works.

“All of these circumstances raise a number of serious questions,” Sofia Zheleva commented:

• “Why is it necessary for the repair works to be subcontracted repeatedly among multiple companies?
• How much more does the service cost as a result of the involvement of multiple subcontractors?
• Why does RIA continue to award public procurement contracts worth hundreds of millions to a state-owned company that has demonstrably been shown to lack the necessary capacity?
• Why does Avtomagistrali EAD continue to use the same companies implicated in scandals such as the alleged siphoning of funds intended for the Hemus Motorway to perform these contracts?”

ACF also sent questions regarding the repair works on the Trakia Motorway to RIA and Avtomagistrali EAD in their respective capacities as contracting authority and contractor under the public procurement procedure. To date, neither has provided a comment.

“We expect RIA and Avtomagistrali to explain why the companies Groma Hold and European Roads are being used for the repairs on the Trakia Motorway, on what legal basis these companies are carrying out works on site, and why this information is not clearly reflected in the publicly available procurement documents,” said Boyko Stankushev, Director of ACF.