Judiciary 'to Run Out of Money' in 2 Weeks - Magistrates

Bulgaria's Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) announced courts and prosecutor's offices have money for just to weeks and will have to stop paying their bills afterwards.

SJC representatives, quoted by Bulgarian daily Sega, have explained that no money has been given out to cover expenses since the initial budget was announced to be depleted.

The judiciary is yet to transfer thousands of BGN to experts who have provided assessments on a number of trials.

Sofia City Court alone is due to pay BGN 900 000 to experts.

After a court chief in the southern town of Radnevo was refused a subsidy to make improvements in the court building earlier in June, magistrates demanded that the Ministry of Justice grant them the additional BGN 19 M that were asked as early as April.

Minister Zinaida Zlatanova was then quoted as asking whether it was expenses or salaries that judiciary employees preferred.

Money shortage is a common problem in the judicial system, but is getting more and more acute with the years as no budget update as the government does not revise and update cost estimates, while prices are constantly on the rise.

The SJC's statement comes short after the Bulgarian Medical Association declared the budget of the National Insurance Fund (NZOK), which is running a huge deficit, can only cover its expenses until September.

Doctors were however envisaging budgets allocated to hospitals and put aside for healthcare expenditure.

Earlier this week, business energy consumers threatened to stop paying electricity bills, but tied their boycott to a proposal for electricity price hike, saying they would act if it is approved.