Bulgaria's National Audit Office has sent parliament three audit reports that MPs asked it to prepare, on the Road Infrastructure Agency, public finances and social payments, the office said. It filed them by parliament's deadline of 30 October 2026.
From January 2020 to June 2026, the agency's budget was €5.62bn (11bn leva). The contracts it signed are worth €9.20bn (18bn leva). The full report covers 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2026.
The audit looked at how the agency manages its money and property, what obligations it has taken on, what work it has done and what costs it has reported. The National Audit Office says the agency plans poorly and has no long-term vision for road development. It signed public procurement contracts without having the money for them.
Auditors found that the agency pays only when it risks heavy late-payment interest or when court rulings have already come into force. Estimated contract values were drastically low, and annexes then raised the sums several times. Checks inside the agency are insufficient and ineffective, and the paperwork has gaps.
The second report covers the Finance Ministry. It examines how changes to laws and regulations between 1 January 2020 and 31 May 2026 affected the state budget and the figures in the Consolidated Fiscal Programme. Auditors say state wage costs more than doubled between 2020 and 2025. They are growing faster than tax revenue and the economy, which leads to a bigger deficit and new debt.
The office says the changes to the laws do not secure steady revenue. Staff costs keep rising and are the biggest part of spending under the programme. The office says this upsets the balance of public finances, leaves less money for investment and forces the state to borrow regularly. Debt that should pay for investment is now used to cover current spending, the auditors say.
The third report covers social payments from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2026. It looks at the budget of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the state social insurance budget at the National Social Security Institute. Its main finding is that social payments are growing faster than the economy and state revenue. In practice, vulnerable groups are better protected, but this puts the whole state budget and the Consolidated Fiscal Programme at risk.
The National Audit Office says social policy over these years has produced an insurance and welfare system that is out of balance, weighs on the budget and is hard to change. The system is losing its financial independence and turning into a large state social programme. The auditors urge quick and adequate decisions to stabilise it and keep public finances stable in the long run.
The office recommends that before any social policy decision, officials study its likely effect more closely and analyse what all the steps cost together. The full texts of the three reports have been published.