Bulgaria Audit Finds Public Payroll Costs More Than Doubled From 2020 to 2025

Bulgaria's National Audit Office reported on 2 November that public-sector remuneration spending rose 114% between 2020 and 2025, outpacing the increase in tax revenue and contributing to mounting fiscal pressure. Its review of the Ministry of Finance's public-finance management was commissioned by parliament and submitted on 30 October. This is a separate audit from the road-agency contracting review also released on 2 November.

According to the audit office's published findings, reported remuneration expenditure increased from 11.3 billion leva in 2020 to 24.3 billion leva in 2025. Tax revenue rose by nearly 89% over the same period. The audit says personnel expenditure reached 10.73% of gross domestic product in 2025, up from 9.40% at the beginning of the period. Those are nominal spending figures, not a finding that the increase was unlawful or that money was misappropriated.

The audit identifies concentration within public administration: more than 90.7% of the rise in payroll expenditure was concentrated in 11 departments, with over 60% of the increase attributed to the defence and security sector, particularly the interior and defence ministries. It also reports that capital expenditure rose in nominal terms but averaged only 78.1% of planned execution during the period.

The consolidated fiscal-programme deficit increased from 3.5 billion leva in 2020 to 6.8 billion leva in 2025, the audit says. The institution attributes the trend to a combination of revenue and spending dynamics and warns that borrowing increasingly finances current requirements. Its published figures put government debt at 31.43 billion euros in 2025 and describe 37.7 billion euros for 2026 as an expectation, not an accomplished result.

The Bulgarian newspaper 24 Chasa reported the release and its main numbers on 2 November. Its reporting corroborates the public release but is not a separate audit, and the two accounts should not be counted as two independent determinations of the spending figures. The underlying government fiscal series and the finance ministry's reply would be necessary to test the audit's causal assessment independently.

The audit office says it issued one recommendation to the finance minister and urged timely fiscal consolidation through spending and revenue measures. The reviewed materials do not establish the ministry's latest response to the completed audit, whether the recommendation has been accepted, or any criminal wrongdoing. Follow-up reporting should obtain the full audit recommendation, the finance ministry's response and subsequent budget execution before drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of corrective action.