Bulgartabac’s CEO Hristo Lalchev yesterday accused the head of Bulgaria's investigations service, Angel Alexandrov, of corruption.

Lalchev said Alexandrow was demanding to receive money for the use of the institution he heads, but did not specify when, for what and how much money he was asked for.
Lalchev also announced that Bulgaria's tobacco monopoly, Bulgartabac, must close three of its four factories in order to remain competitive. According to local media reports, he believes it is best to leave the Blagoevgrad factory operating as it has the biggest production capacity. If the company is not privatised, three of the factories must be closed and half of the employees must be sacked, Lalchev explained.
Bulgaria has to decide soon whether to offer Bulgartabac for privatisation or not. Earlier this week, government members of the Turkish ethnic minority party, DPS, have effectively blocked a government resolution that would spearhead privatisation. The cabinet had been expected to endorse changes to the Privatisation Act which would have resulted in the skipping of Bulgartabac’s strategy review and its approval by parliament and allowed the cabinet to end the privatisation process in the next few months.
The DPS move can be attributed to uncertainty over the strategy of cigarette factories' future owners and potential changes for tobacco growers who make up the bulk of its electorate.