BULGARIA: NEW CORRUPTION STRATEGY OFFERS LOFTY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SOFIA 000126

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PREL PINR
SUBJECT: BULGARIA: NEW CORRUPTION STRATEGY OFFERS LOFTY
RHETORIC BUT FEW EFFECTIVE MEASURES

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1. SUMMARY: (SBU) After weeks of delay and last-minute
revisions, the Council of Ministers finally adopted its new
National Anti-Corruption Strategy on January 12. The
strategy clearly seeks to address Brussels' criticism that
Bulgaria has made little progress in curbing corruption,
particularly political corruption, which is now one of the
government's main priorities, according to the document. As
part of this effort, the strategy pledges to improve
transparency in party funding and public procurement, and
strengthen regulations on asset disclosure. While the
government's focus is now in the right place, many of the
proposed goals are vague or modest, if not already in the
process of being implemented. Indeed, Embassy contacts
involved in drafting the strategy say that most of the
ministries intentionally tried to avoid taking on too many
commitments, especially with EU scrutiny being so high. Many
critics, who say the strategy lacks specific or effective
measures for fighting corruption, suggest its primary
function is to appease the EU before the final recommendation
on Bulgaria's accession in May. END SUMMARY.

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Strategy Aims Low on Specific Goals
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2. (SBU) The government on January 12 approved Bulgaria's
second National Anti-Corruption Strategy plan for 2006-2008.
The document, which is one Bulgaria's commitments as part of
its EU bid, was expected to be approved at the end of 2005.
However, in early January the government rejected the first
draft of the plan, which it viewed as incomplete and
un-presentable. The inter-ministerial taskforce drafting the
plan then turned to the Center for Study of Democracy (CSD),
a local NGO, for help in redrafting the strategy. CSD
officials told us the original draft indeed was in poor shape
and read more like a laundry list of lofty goals (e.g.,
"clean up corruption in the procurement process"),but
lacking any concrete measures for curbing corruption.


3. (SBU) According to CSD, the taskforce accepted a majority
of their proposals but reformulated the measures to be less
specific or ambitious. One example was CSD's recommendation
to ban any political party that withheld information on the
sources of its funding. The taskforce instead pledged simply
to "strengthen" the laws on party funding. CSD officials
told us that none of the ministries were willing to take on
commitments that would not be easily achievable, but the
Interior Ministry was particularly resistant. As such, most
of the proposed goals are for initiatives that are already
being implemented by various government agencies, such as
public procurement reform, a new system for registering
businesses, and a plan for e-government. Other measures were
simply made more vague and general, a fact not missed by some
of the strategy's critics who claim it lacks specificity and
effective measures for implementation.

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The Priorities of the Anti-Corruption Strategy
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4. (U) Political corruption ranks high among the government's
priorities in the new strategy. Under the plan, ministers and
other high-level officials will be obligated to attend
special seminars on curbing corruption. The courses will
teach officials how to identify and respond to corruption and
conflicts of interest, and conduct transparent public tenders
and proper public procurement procedures. The law on asset
disclosure for politicians will be strengthened, and stricter
regulations imposed on lobbying and the funding of political
parties as well as their election campaigns. The National
Audit Office already is implementing many of these measures,
largely with USAID support.


5. (U) The government intends to curb corruption in the civil
service by introducing greater mobility and rotations of
officials who work in areas most susceptible to corruption.
The strategy also proposes to improve the regulations against
conflict of interest when a public official transfers to the
private sector. All public servants eventually will be bound
to fill out property statements. A proposal for creating a
"blacklist" of companies suspected of bribery were ultimately
rejected.


6. (U) The new strategy identifies the health and education
sectors as priority areas requiring special attention. These
sectors are the areas where the public encounters corruption
most frequently, according to opinion polls. The primary
economic areas where the government will focus its

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anti-corruption effort are on VAT fraud and the grey economy.
The GOB intends to establish a centralized electronic system
for registering legal entities, which will alleviate pressure
on businesses to offer bribes.

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Proposals That Ended Up on the Chopping Block
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7. (SBU) According to CSD, the task force refused to mention
any link between corruption and organized crime in the plan.
They reportedly were "frightened" by the idea, asserting that
organized crime was not appropriate for this strategy paper
but would be addressed by other ministries' action plans.
The task force rejected proposals for stepping up the fight
against the grey economy specifically related to duty free
shops and gas stations. Random "integrity" checks and
measures to avoid conflicts of interest involving MPs were
rejected, suggesting Parliament is still unwilling to police
itself. Also dropped was a recommendation to introduce
greater financial independence and decentralization of
municipalities from the central government, including the
capacity for local officials to manage EU funds. According
to CSD, this decentralization would help end the practice of
using funds from the central budget for political influence
over the local municipalities. The taskforce also refused to
accept a proposal on increasing the judiciary's budget as a
way to curb corruption by improving wages in the judiciary.
The task force argued that including such a measure would
infringe on the independent work of the judiciary. The
Strategy emphasizes participatory decision-making with civil
society, but only one NGO (CSD) was involved in drafting the
document.


8. (SBU) One important recommendation that was accepted by
the taskforce was to improve the stature and decision-making
authority of the government body that oversees the
implementation of the Anti-Corruption
Strategy. The Anti-Corruption Coordination Commission,
formerly chaired by the Justice Minister, has been primarily
responsible for coordinating the work of the various
institutions involved in implementing the strategy. This
Commission proved to be completely ineffective, and many
businesses complained that it was little more than a mailbox.
The new Commission, which will be chaired by the Interior
Minister, will be given a stronger mandate and most likely
report directly to the Council of Ministers. Instead of
information gathering and coordination, the Commission will
have more policymaking authority. This control function,
however, may be impeded by the fact that the Commission was
not created by law and as such cannot supersede the
functioning of other institutions.

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COMMENT
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9. (SBU) With this latest anti-corruption strategy, the GOB
may be trying to do just enough to appease Brussels without
making too many specific commitments that they later could be
held accountable for. By not addressing the link between
organized crime and political corruption, the strategy
ignores the obvious symbiosis between the two. The strategy's
focus on petty and administrative corruption is not a
cop-out, since this is the most pervasive and thus pernicious
aspect of corruption that feeds public cynicism. But by
failing to address the need for more transparency in
political party financing, the government has given itself a
pass on what many here consider the heart of the problem.
Beyrle