Almost no state-owned firm under the economy ministry has any cash left, deputy prime minister and economy minister Alexander Pulev told parliament's economic policy, investment and industry committee.

"There's barely a single state company in the economy that isn't in a very serious cash crunch," he said. The exceptions are VMZ and a handful of other firms whose products sell well abroad.

Pulev blamed the situation not just on the economic cycle but also on "very bad management, which is fully documented." He said he now has all the data on the state he found things in when he took office.

The first thing he signed after taking office stopped the financial leaks in the system. He also found ready-made paperwork to index contracts for work that, in practice, had never been done.

Pulev pointed to the changes already made to the companies' management boards. The ministry is now asking the new leadership teams for urgent, concrete plans to turn each company around.

The ministry itself has only a small budget and can't hand money straight to companies under the State Consolidation Company. For extra funding, Pulev said he'll rely on talks with the finance minister and on the Bulgarian Development Bank — but only for projects that can prove they'll pay off.

He said he expects the Bulgarian Development Bank, which is being restructured, and the Bulgarian Export Insurance Agency to roll out new financial products for small and medium-sized firms, on top of grants that don't need to be paid back.