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Audit finds Road Infrastructure Agency signed BGN 18.2 billion of contracts against a BGN 11.4 billion budget

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Road maintenance works on a motorway with asphalt machinery and traffic cones on a clear day Infrastructure
Road maintenance works on a motorway with asphalt machinery and traffic cones on a clear day

The National Audit Office report covers 2020 to May 2026 and finds a funding gap of BGN 6.8 billion; separately, a draft restructuring would cut 613 posts at the agency.

Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) signed contracts worth more than BGN 18.2 billion between January 2020 and May 2026 while its budget for the period was BGN 11.4 billion, exceeding its available resources by BGN 6.8 billion, or nearly 60%, according to a National Audit Office report reported by BTA on 2 November. At the fixed conversion rate, BGN 18.2 billion is about €9.3 billion.

The auditors said the gap tied up budget resources for a total of 11 years and two months, about four years beyond the audited period. The agency received an additional BGN 1.6 billion through government decrees, of which BGN 1.2 billion went to routine road repairs and maintenance.

Of 213 contracts for maintaining the national road network, 139 were amended with supplementary agreements, raising their combined value to BGN 5.6 billion, 78% above the original estimate. For 64 new construction contracts with an estimated value of BGN 4.8 billion, additional agreements worth BGN 1.9 billion were approved. The auditors also found systematic legal violations in 56 price adjustment agreements for inflation worth nearly BGN 1.1 billion, and a risk of the same work being commissioned and paid for more than once. The report contains ten recommendations to the agency's management board.

Finance Minister Galab Donev referred to the audit when presenting the 2027 budget, saying that commitments made without secured funding would have to be carried by this year's and next year's budgets.

Separately, the Regional Development Ministry published a draft restructuring of the agency on 2 November that would cut 613 staff positions and personnel costs by 10%, BTA reported. Directorates would fall from 16 to 12. The National Toll Administration would lose 505 positions, 470 of them in control and enforcement, as roadside checks shift to digital monitoring, leaving it with 377 posts. Regional road administrations would go from 1,080 to 991 posts.

For road contractors, the findings point to delayed payments and unapproved certificates for completed work dating back to 2022.

Sources