The Interior Ministry: OLAF is scrutinizing the Ministry of Agriculture and Food because of Twitter

On its official web page, the Interior Ministry confirmed reports that the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has started a probe into the Ministry of Agriculture and Food regarding a BGN 48,000 public contract for the design and support of the Programme for Rural Development's Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Interior Ministry's announcement came in response to an article in the Sega Daily according to which Miroslav Naydenov was under investigation by OLAF. Reports of the puzzling contract secured by two 25-year-old former female employees of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) first surfaced last year causing a scandal and the Prosecutor's Office to take action.

On Tuesday, it emerged that the the Agriculture Ministry has started a new public procurement procedure after the contract with the two former PR specialists with BFSA expired.

Just hours earlier Miroslav Naydenov once again told reporters that he is not being investigated by OLAF, nor has he been required to give testimony, adding that there is an active exchange of information between the Ministry and the anti-fraud agency as usual. However Naydenov confirmed that Iliana Yotova, MEP, has referred the matter to OLAF.

"It's perfectly normal. Authorities are obligated to investigate any report of wrongdoing, but since the Agriculture Minister was never personally accused of anything, I have nothing to worry about," Naydenov said.

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