TABLE: The billions Bulgaria needs Reuters - 2009/6/29
Bulgaria, the poorest European Union member, is losing billions of euros to corruption and organized crime each year, while its dilapidated communist-era infrastructure needs billions to be modernized.

Following are government and non-government organizations'' estimates of the money lost and necessary investments:

FUNDS NEEDED TO BUILD OR UPGRADE:

Roads Railways Water networks

(bln euros) * 3.7 3.3 9.5

FUNDS LOST TO ILLEGAL ACTIVITY LINKED TO:

Grey economy Public procurements Land swaps Human trafficking

(bln. euros annually) ** 5.1 0.8 1.5 1.8

NOTES:

* Data from The National Road Infrastructure Agency (www.napi.government.bg); The Transport Ministry (www.mt.government.bg); The Construction Ministry (www.mrrb.government.bg)

** Data from the independent anti-graft Center for the Study of Democracy (www.csd.bg), which gets funding from the United States and the EU.

Author: Irina Ivanova

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