Bulgaria's Ombudsman: I Can't Help the People Whose Money Is In KTB

Bulgaria's Ombudsman Konstantin Penchev said he received plenty of complaints from people whose salaries were blocked in the troubled Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB). 

“I can't help them,” Penchev told the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). “Those are the risks of the market economy. We don't know what's the situation and we cannot find a solution.”

Penchev harshly criticised the intentions or Parliament to pass amendments to the Penal Code criminalising the spreading of false information on the banks' financial situation. 

“I am fed up every time something happens, politicians to change the law, especially the Penal Code” he said. “I will keep an eye on the final draft of the amendments and am ready to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court. Those amendments are unnecessary, we cannot hysterically change the law all the time.”

The Ombudsman commented further on the KTB crisis. “It is not a secret that four governments pumped up this bank,” he said. “When you pump something up, eventually it bursts. This bank should not be nationalised and the audit must be carried out to the end.”