Lords of the Dust: Who are the Patrons of a Parallel Construction Waste Removal Scheme in Sofia?

A long-running corruption scheme in the Metropolitan Inspectorate has created a parallel system of dumping construction waste and construction spoils at more than 240 unregulated dumpsites in the territory of Sofia Municipality.

In addition to the serious environmental risks caused, the abuses uncovered by the new leadership of the Inspectorate have harmed Sofia’s budget by hundreds of thousands of levs.

In its new investigation, entitled “The Lords of the Dust”, the Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) exposes the problem and invites the investigating authorities to answer to the public who the persons involved were and how high up in the structure of the Sofia Municipality were the protectors of the scheme.

“Lyulin, Bistritsa, Bankya, Pancharevo – there is not a district left on the outskirts of Sofia that is not affected,” said Sofia Zheleva, a member of the ACF legal team. “We have seen with our own eyes some of the sites of illegal dumping and are shocked by the scale of the pollution. The sites vary from a few hundred square meters to several dozen acres, as is the case with perhaps the largest illegal dumpsite in Malashevtsi.”

For years, waste has been dumped in and around river ravines, on farmland, on municipal and private plots.

A streamlined parallel scheme

According to the new director of the Metropolitan Inspectorate, Eng. Nikolay Nedelkov, the scale of the illegal activity indicates that it has been ongoing for years and is well organised.

“We are not talking about dumpsites where everyone goes and throws away whatever they want,” Nedelkov said. “It’s about a well-coordinated scheme involving most of the transport companies that remove rubble and construction waste from construction sites in Sofia.”

“Unfortunately, we found many locations where the illegal dumping was being done on municipal land, in and around river ravines, which could lead to an environmental disaster in case of flooding,” said Eng. Nedelkov.

The illegal dumping of construction waste and rubble carries additional environmental risks besides the risk of flooding. It also causes damage to agricultural land that is difficult to reverse.

Work on mapping the illegal dumping sites started following Eng. Nedelkov’s appointment as Director of the Inspectorate in November 2023. Since then, he has also taken active measures to hold the offending companies to account.

In Sofia, all construction waste and rubble is transported to the Vrazhdebna municipal landfill where companies transporting the waste are charged according to the weight of the load. Unauthorised dumping of construction waste and rubble is punishable by fines of up to BGN 5,000 for truck drivers and up to BGN 50,000 for transport companies. In contrast to the practices of the recent past, the Inspectorate’s new management proposes the imposition of fines at or near the maximum. To date, more than 90 penalty notices have been issued and the value of fines imposed has increased several fold compared to the fines imposed by the previous management. Disciplinary measures have also been taken against Inspectorate staff, some of whom have been dismissed.

Who are the persons involved?

According to the ACF legal team, the scheme can be fully unravelled only with the help of investigative authorities.

“As early as 2015, the public was presented with disturbing information concerning illegal dumping activities taking place in Sofia. There was no institutional response then,” Zheleva said. “Currently, the Metropolitan Inspectorate is taking measures, but their actions alone won’t solve the problem as it can only be fully addressed through real steps by the Ministry of Interior and the prosecutor’s office.”

In October 2015, a popular TV program broadcast an interview with an anonymous employee of the Metropolitan Inspectorate. The interview implicated Eng. Veska Georgieva, the then-director of the Inspectorate, and Eng. Nikolai Kyuchukov, head of the Construction Pollution Control Sector, as involved in the scheme.

Eng. Georgieva was appointed Director of the Inspectorate in 2008 by the then Mayor of Sofia Municipality, Boyko Borisov. She held the post until she died in 2021 when longtime police officer Ivaylo Ivanov took over. Eng. Kyuchukov has headed the Construction Pollution Control Sector since September 2011.

Earlier this year, curious information about Eng. Lyubka Lyubenova, a longtime Inspectorate employee and head of the Sector for Control of District Inspectorates, provided additional and very curious information about Kyuchukov to the Inspectorate’s new director. In one of the conversations, which Eng. Nedelkov has recorded, Lyubenova is claiming that Eng. Kyuchukov has patronized the illegal dumping scheme in exchange for significant material benefits. A mention is made of the sum of BGN 500,000 — an amount which, Lyubenova claimed, Kyuchukov was collecting to buy the top job at the Inspectorate. As well as filling her boss in on the details of the parallel waste disposal scheme, which she claims cannot be stopped because of the huge sums of money involved, Lyubenova suggests “we should regulate this process with the right people and in the right manner…so that it will be as it has always been” because “why should anyone take from you what is rightfully yours as director”.

“Although ACF lacks the mechanisms to verify many of Ms. Lubenova’s allegations, we decided to air the recording because it contains too many and too specific details about how the scheme was carried out, including the names of municipal employees and amounts paid to them. We urge the prosecutor’s office to investigate,” Zheleva said.

Eng. Nedelkov’s attempts to remove Kyuchukov and Lyubenova from their posts have been unsuccessful so far. Yet, both officials are currently off duty.

Eng. Kyuchukov surprisingly decided to start work on a scientific dissertation, taking a leave of absence that he had been granted more than seven years ago – a right guaranteed to him by the Labour Code. Lyubenova is on sick leave due to a cardiological illness, but Sofia Municipality is appealing the sick leave.

Attempts to dismiss Lyubenova on disciplinary grounds have been thwarted by the refusal of the Independent Trade Union Federation of Commerce, Cooperatives, Tourism and Services, of which she is secretary. The union was registered two days before Eng. Nedelkov was appointed director. In addition, Lyubenova has filed three internal reports against Eng. Nedelkov, as well as a report to the Commission for the Protection of Personal Data (CPPD) which acts as a whistleblower protection body. On July 31, she was granted whistleblower protection, something that, in effect, makes her disciplinary dismissal impossible.

ACF also calls on the prosecution to investigate Tsvetelin Todorov, referred to as “Tsetso” in the secretly recorded conversation. Allegedly, Todorov is organizing the dumping of waste in the western districts of Sofia Municipality. Whether this is, indeed, the case remains to be clarified. Still, it is a fact that, during an inspection, he had provided Inspectorate staff with а falsified land reclamation permit issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. Todorov has claimed ownership of nine other plots of land where illegal dumping of waste had taken place.

“In order to cover up illegal dumping activities, Todorov provided forged official documents,” Zheleva said. “In addition to the document fraud, law enforcement authorities should also check whether the owners of plots mentioned in the document are victims of the illegal activities or accomplices in them.”

The municipality has issued cleaning orders to the owners of the affected private plots. The clean-up of municipal land contaminated by unauthorised dumping is the responsibility of the district mayors and will further burden the municipal budget.

“The above facts are only part of the extremely disturbing information we have received about the work of certain officials at the Inspectorate and of Sofia Municipality,” said Boyko Stankushev, director of the ACF. “Due to the nature of the problem and its very serious implications, we will be following this case with particular attention, as well as monitoring the reactions of all competent institutions.”