Indicators of Unprofitable Deal Regarding Lease of Building Housing Administrative Court – Sofia District
The building on 7 Suborna Str. used by the Administrative Court – Sofia and several other branches of the judiciary has been rented at a price almost double the market rates, an ACF investigation has shown.
The building was initially rented in 2007 from a private company, Translat JSC, by the Ministry of Justice, represented by the then minister Miglena Tacheva (via contract no. 15-00-566 from 15 October 2007). According to public information available at the time the contract was signed, rental prices in the Saborna Str. area were EUR 11.38 per square meter. The rate, stipulated in the contract signed by the Ministry of Justice, however, was EUR 16 per sq. m. – a high price, considering the substantial total surface area of the building (2,399.57 sq. m.).
Following ammendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria (State Gazette, issue no. 100, 18 December 2015), and the Judicial System Act (State Gazette, issue no. 28, 8 April 2016), the Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) took over the management of all real estate of the judicial system. As a result, in 2017 the SJC signed contract no. ВСС-4637/30 March 2017, once again renting the building at 7 Saborna Str. from “Translat” JSC. The rental rate in the new contract was EUR 13.50 per sq. m. – unchanged from the rate stipulated in the latest annex to the contract between the Ministry of Justice and the building owner.
ACF sent an inquiry under the Access to Public Information Act to the SJC, asking about all the details of the rental deal. The SJC replied that the average rental rates for the area at the time the contract was signed were EUR 7.89 per sq.m., adding that there was no other real estate in the area that could have provided enough working space to accommodate the SJC administration, the Administrative Court – Sofia District, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, and other branches of the judiciary on the same location. The SJC did not explain why all these judicial branches should share the same premices and should be located on Saborna Str.
Suspicions about the existence of a possible corruption scheme related to the rental contracts signed by the Ministry of Justice and later by the SJC have also been voiced by the team of the investigative journalism portal Bivol.