The European Commission's instructions for suspension of 81 million leva in SAPARD payments to Bulgaria will not affect disbursement to diligent beneficiaries and they will get their money from the Finance Ministry's National Fund Directorate, Deputy Finance Minister Dimiter Ivanovski, who is Bulgaria's national leader for SAPARD, said Tuesday. He was speaking to the press after a meeting of the SAPARD monitoring committee, BTA reports.

The suspension was announced on March 7.

It concerns three projects in the poultry and markets sectors, implemented by three companies: Elpin Trade International, Palmigra and Eurofree, Agriculture State Funs Deputy Director Vladimir Karamishev told BTA.

Deputy Finance Minister Ivanov dismissed allegations about discontinued payments to SAPARD beneficiaries and called them "ungrounded - considering the real situation".

He went on to explain that a letter from letter of Jean-Luc Demarty, Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development - which has been heavily cited in Bulgaria since the suspension instructions became known - only asks of Bulgaria to hold back payment applications to Brussels for projects under the SAPARD measure for improving the processing and marketing of agricultural and fishery products, "to allow OLAF time to clarify some additional circumstances", as Ivanov put it.

Between the start of the program and January 31, 2008, eligible SAPARD expenses totaled nearly 317 million euro, said the Deputy Finance Minister. A total of 83 irregularities have been identified for the same period and OLAF and the Bulgarian Interior Ministry have been regularly advised of these.

Ivanov also said that the ongoing OLAF investigation into possible SAPARD scams is a reason for the competent Bulgarian institutions to undertake additional audits and monitoring.

The head of the Agriculture State Fund, Dimiter Tadarukov, added that past audits by the Finance Ministry and the National Audit Office have found the national SAPARD Agency compliant with all Bulgarian and EU legislation.

A European Commission audit of the implementation of SAPARD in Bulgaria is expected to produce a report in late May, he said.

In his words, if any problems with SAPARD are identified by OLAF, these will not be the SAPARD Agency's but the beneficiaries' fault.

It did not become clear at the news conference following the session of the monitoring committee, when Bulgaria could request resumption of SAPARD payments.

Meanwhile, the right-wing opposition Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) warned that what they called "undermined confidence" between Bulgaria and the European Commission puts in jeopardy Bulgaria's Rural Development Program for which EU funding is expected.

DSB, as well as the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), insist for the resignation of five government ministers - Plamen Oresharski of finance, Asen Gagaouzov of Regional Development and Public Works, Djevdet Chakurov of Environment, Nihat Kabil of Agriculture and Peter Moutafchiev of Transport - over the EU fund suspension. DSB threatened to use all legal parliamentary and extraparliamentary instruments for exerting pressure on the government.

"The European Commission suspended payments under ISPA, Phare and SAPARD and with this Brussels voted no-confidence in the government," DSB deputy leader Dimiter Buchvarov said at a news conference Tuesday.

UDF issued a special declaration on the matter saying that the short notice the European Commission has given Bulgarian for rectifying the irregularities "clearly shows that the Bulgarian government has lost all its credibility in Europe".