Bulgarian Press Review July 31, 2009

Press Review
Sofia, July 31 (BTA)

THE HOME SCENE

At his first meeting with Interior Ministry personnel since taking office on Thursday, new Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov promised that the Chief Directorate for Combating
Organized Crime will be restored in functions and name, "Troud" reports. Tsvetanov wants representatives of his Ministry and of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) to form a working group so as to sort out the duplication of the two entities' work. The Minister guaranteed to his subordinates that there will be no longer political cover-ups at the Interior Ministry. Tsvetanov also said that he will tackle the problem with mobile telephone traffic print-outs which the Ministry now can access only after obtaining authorization from a judge.

"Sega" writes that the new Government is taking a series of measures to invigorate organized crime control. The joint teams investigating the mafia will receive 50,000 leva incentives for each conviction secured, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said after conferring with Prosecutor General Boris Velchev and the Deputy Prosecutors General on Thursday. The problem of the uncontrollable leak of information to the criminal underworld is supposed to be addressed in this way as well. The idea of setting up joint teams of prosecutors, officers of the Interior Ministry, SANS, the National Revenue Agency and the National Customs Agency was stressed in the latest report from the European Commission.

"I will not file padded reports," Interior Minister Tsvetanov is quoted as saying in "Troud." He is adamant that everything possible should be done to streamline the profile of SANS. "There should be no competition between any institutions whatsoever, no hiding of information or mistrust. To this end, we will propose to the Prime Minister to appoint a working group of representatives of the SANS and the Interior Ministry to prepare the appropriate draft legislation within a short term. The State now is not in a financial position to afford duplication of such law-enforcement activities."

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"Troud" quotes National Assembly SANS Control Committee Chairman and The Blue Coalition Co-chairman Ivan Kostov as saying that the leadership and key officers of the SANS must be replaced because the Agency has lost its credibility with Bulgaria's partner services. Kostov sees "a clear signal" of this in the fact that several months ago the US cancelled a visit by SANS Chairman Petko Sertov to the Amercian special services.

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Order, Lawfulness, Justice leader Yane Yanev says in a "24 Chassa" interview that a customs chief traded in influence through a network of structures which are being checked by prosecutors, the SANS and investigators. The alert has been submitted to the National Assembly Anti-Corruption Committee, which Yanev chairs. The scheme is allegedly linked to customs treatments and procedures, the administration and the information system of the National Customs Agency. Entire shiments of goods are missing, they are moving on paper only. That is why the MPs want to give the customs management a hearing.


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"Troud" reports that a check conducted by the SANS at the Ministry of Health to audit the performance of the Ministry's previous leadership found that the Exchequer sustained a loss of at least 3 million leva from tenders for just two cancer durgs in the 2005-2008 period. The detected violations have already been referred to the prosecuting magistracy, the daily learnt from its sources. The liability for the scams may be incurred by former deputy health minister Emil Rainov, who was in charge of medicines policy.

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In an interview for "24 Chassa," Education, Youth and Science Minister Yordanka Fandakova says: "I attach importance to the system settling down at the school and kindergarten level. A number of changes were made in recent years, some of them were rushed, but they were definitely in the right direction: the delegated budgets and external evaluation. They rather sought to discipline the system, to channel effectively financial resources, but they do not affect directly the quality of education. And this is our top priority." Fandakova promises that the external evaluation after the 7th grade will qualify as entrance examination to the vocational secondary schools.

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"Troud" reports that Labour and Social Policy Minister Totyu Mladenov said on Thursday that of the 6 million leva allocated for free seaside vacations for pensioners, 4.5 million leva have not been spent and will be used to pay for medicines for the poorest elderly, opening of soup kitchens etc. All other programmes will be reviewed and the ineffective ones will be suspended.

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A representative national survey of the AFIS Agency, presented in "Monitor", found that 61 per cent of Bulgarians are inspired with hope by the new Government, and just 6 per cent are disappointed. Parliament starts with 38 per cent approval, which is a high rating for this institution. "The results show that the new government faces both great opportunities and serious problems. The opportunities stem from the unprecedented support it enjoys at the start of its tenure. Borissov provoked sufficiently large amounts of hope, which brought him a substantial approval in advance. The problems stem from one of the reasons why GERB won a large majority: the economic crisis. It requires leftist measures, whereas a right-wing government has come to power," the sociologists comment.

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"There will be a Grand National Assembly, but this will happen only after the first year in government," National Assembly Chair Tsetska Tsacheva says in a "Klassa" interview. She notes that in its governance programme GERB has categorically stated that the Constitution is no longer compatible with the actual social relations. The convocation of a Grand National Assembly, however, is not a short-term priority of the party. Legislative amendments must be adopted before that.



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"Sega" observes that having voted in favour of barring people affiliated to the former State Security from the leaderships of the standing committees, the National Assembly quite unexpectedly refused to check whether the members of the committees that will be controlling and checking the Interior Ministry and the special services have not worked for the communist-era secret police. "Thus, a shadow of doubt was absurdly cast on the people who will be controlling this key figure," the paper writes.

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Under the heading "The Five Lustration Blunders in Parliament", an analysis in "24 Chassa" says that "the first blunder was purely practical. Parliament lost a marvellous chairman of the Culture Committee in the face of Bojidar Dimitrov. The second blunder is legal: rules of procedure may not overrule a law. The official Internet site of the secret files commission expressly states that 'the law is not of a lustration nature'. The Constitution, too, has been violated, as according to it 'all citizens shall be equal before the law'." The author recalls that all new democracies introduced lustration rules back in the 1990s - and revoked them when they entered the EU.

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Commenting on a meeting of Socialist mayors, regional governors and municipal councillors at the party headquarters on Wednesday, "Troud" writes that "once they find that life goes on, the Left will rush to seek jobs for their cadres relieved from the executive. Regional governors and regional vice governors are the potential vicitims of the forthcoming dismissals. They may possibly be rescued by mayors. The period outside government is expected to sober down the MRF [Movement for Rights and Freedoms]. The local tyrants will lie low, the party lobbies will manoeuvre for position, and the careerists will go."

ECONOMY

"Money for Arms Diversted to Pensions:" under this headline, "Standart News" runs an interview with Finance Minister Simeon Djankov. He explains that there are two ways to patch the 2,500 million leva gap in the budget: by cutting expenditure and by increasing revenues. Spending on education, health and law enforcement will not be touched. Everything else may be pared. A large part of the savings will come from the defence budget, but the allocations for armament rather than for salaries will be rediced. "At a time of a crisis, we can afford to delay arms procurement by a year or two," Djankov argues. Another part of the savings will be from energy projects which, too, may be rescheduled and reconsidered. According to the Finance Minister, revenues will rise tangibly after the information systems of the customs and revenue administrations are linked, which can be done as early as next week.

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"Leading economists of GERB and the Union of Democratic Forces made it clear that the future of the Belene N-Plant looks increasingly bleak," writes "Troud." "The State must not furnish guarantees for projects like Belene and provide personnel for them. The best option is to seek private investors," says Stoyan Mavrodiev of GERB, who was elected Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Economic Policy Committee. "At this point, it is shortsighted that the State should assume the risk of an 8,000 million euro nuclear power plant," commented Committee Chairman Martin Dimitrov of the UDF.

BULGARIA - EU

"Sofia Awaits OLAF's Verdict on 98 SAPARD Projects," "Sega" reports. "Regardless of the complaints of meat and milk processing companies of being unfairly accused of abusing EU funding, the chances of some of them not returning money to Brussels are negligible, it emerged yesterday. The checks of 98 projects under the SAPARD Programme are going on, and fully compliant companies will hardly be identified, according to insiders. Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov asked the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for at least one month grace so as to check whether any companies are compliant. Regardless of whether OLAF will extend the deadline for the checks, the Sofia City Prosecution Office is conducting its own investigation into the suspicious projects, which is not yet completed."

Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:


• http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
• http://www.novinite.com/index.php
• http://www.focus-fen.net/


Most discussed topics of the day – July 31, 2009

• Today Representative of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev held a meeting. OLAF had put confidence that must be justified and this would happen soon, declared Minister Tsvetanov.

• Experts from Europe's anti-fraud agency OLAF have agreed that the prosecutor's office makes additional checks into suspicious projects under a farm aid programme. This was announced by Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov, who held talks with the Experts from the European Commission agriculture directorate and OLAF late into the night on Thursday.

• Prime Minister Boyko Borisov appointed Dimitar Ivanov on the director’s post of National Road Infrastructure Agency (NRIA). Authorities of former director Yanko Yankov have been withdrawn. The reshuffle in NRIA has been made due to lack in coordination and cooperation with European Commission representatives, regarding payments for outside consultations at heightened prices, inadmissible expenses in NRIA budget in situation of financial crisis etc.

• I have repeatedly said that I vote “for” keeping the parliamentary character of the Republic of Bulgaria, President Georgi Parvanov said at Trapezitsa Hill in the town of Veliko Tarnovo today. “There must be some corrections in the president for direct convoke of referendum, overcoming presidential veto to be realized due to higher percent of MPs votes, may be legislation initiative rights that’s all.” President Parvanov stated.