EU-Report Accession Bulgaria

Anti-corruption measures

Whilst the Government and civil society have succeeded in putting the need to tackle corruption high on the public agenda and a considerable step forward has been taken through the National Anti-corruption Strategy and Action Plan, surveys indicate that corruption remains a serious problem. However, Bulgaria's ranking in indexes of international perceptions has improved. The public still ranks corruption as one of the most serious problems facing the country. The high level of corruption is attributed to factors such as low salaries, imperfect legislation, lack of transparent administrative controls and poor functioning of the judicial system. Customs, occupations linked to the judicial system, tax officials, parliamentarians, police and ministry officials are perceived to be among the most corrupt groups. Corruption is also seen as having a negative effect on the business and investment climate and therefore on economic development.

The overall strategy aims to create an institutional and legal environment for tackling and preventing corruption, for example by improving financial and fiscal control, reforming the customs agency, adopting measures in the Ministry of the Interior, improving the functioning of authorities at local level, creating more transparency in financing of political parties, and strengthening the role of the Parliament in combating corruption. It also includes anti-corruption measures related to the judicial system and the economic sector. Increased transparency and simplification of procedures were common features. Most elements have been followed up in the Action Plan.

The Government undertook a serious consultation exercise with NGOs and donors on the preparation of the Strategy and the Action Plan, and these bodies will be involved in implementation. The strong role of NGOs is to be welcomed. Measures are aimed at preventing as well as tackling corruption. However, on some important aspects of the strategy, such as decentralisation, the improvement of local governance, and the establishment of improved mechanisms for financing political parties, there is no detail as yet on concrete measures and deadlines. Likewise, no progress has been made on the draft Act provided for in the Strategy concerning MPs' immunity.

As mentioned above, police corruption is perceived to be a problem. Cases of bribery in the traffic and border police have been raised by EU citizens driving in and through Bulgaria. The Ministry of the Interior has developed an intra-departmental programme to combat corruption and prepared a draft code of ethical behaviour for the police, and in the past 6 months, of 150 corruption cases brought to the attention of the Ministry of the Interior, 40 cases were forwarded to the prosecution and 73 dealt with by disciplinary measures.

The Government has identified improving the customs administration as one of its top priorities in the fight against corruption.

The specialised anti-corruption unit in the National Service for Combating Organised Crime has been reinforced, with a doubling of its operational staff.

A number of new or revised laws have been adopted which should contribute to fighting corruption. In April 2002, the Public Procurement Law was amended. The changes made to the privatisation law, inter alia to make procedures more transparent, have started to have an effect. Following a review of licensing regimes, the Government has decided to abolish certain regimes and simplify others. In September 2002, amendments to the Penal Code were adopted which introduce more precise provisions on corruption and organised crime (see Chapter 24 - Co-operation in the field of justice and home affairs).

Corruption at the level of local offices of central institutions (e.g. inspectorates) is also seen as a problem. Public-private Councils have been set up with local municipalities and NGOs in a number of cities to develop local anti-corruption activities.

As mentioned above in the section on the executive, the Civil Service Law and Law on Administration set the general values for public administration and there is a non-binding Code of Conduct.

In accordance with the Act on property disclosure of people in senior positions in the State of May 2000, parliamentarians, ministers, senior judges and magistrates, district governors etc. have to submit annual asset declarations. The President of the National Audit Office holds a register. However, there is a need for effective monitoring and sanctions for those not complying.

The Institute for Public Administration has started to provide a training course on ``Preventing corruption ­ risks and challenges to the public administration''.

Bulgaria is a party to the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, which it ratified in November 2001, as well as to the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. It has signed but not ratified the Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption. Bulgaria continues to participate in the monitoring of anti-corruption measures adopted by the OECD Working Group on bribery in international commercial transactions, and is a member of GRECO, the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (see Chapter 24 ­ Co-operation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs).

Bulgaria received a GRECO expert mission in September 2001. An evaluation report was adopted in May 2002 and subsequently made public. The GRECO report noted that so far, Bulgaria had made more progress in the adoption of legislation than in its implementation and enforcement. It stressed the need for an evaluation of the judicial system and for clarifying the functions of its various components. It noted that criminal procedure was slow and that relatively few cases of corruption had resulted in judicial sanctions in comparison with the estimated level of corruption. In its conclusions, the GRECO report addressed fourteen specific recommendations to Bulgaria. The majority of these are addressed in the Action Plan adopted in February 2002. Bulgaria is strongly encouraged to ensure due follow-up to these recommendations.

Whilst progress has been made in setting the framework for tackling corruption, practical steps have yet to be taken to fully enforce this. It is still difficult to obtain a full and objective picture of the situation in the country and clear information on investigation, prosecution and sentencing in corruption cases.

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