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January 2006, No 7 
 
 
Development of the Second National Anti-Corruption Strategy for 
Bulgaria 
 
 
 
On January 12, 2006, the Council of Ministers adopted a National Strategy for Good 
Governance, Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption 2006-2008. The document was part 
of the commitments made by Bulgaria in the field of anti-corruption in the context of its EU 
accession. The strategy was expected to be adopted and presented to the European 
Commission by the end of 2005. In the beginning of 2006 an inter-ministerial task force 
submitted a draft version of the strategy to the government but it revealed so many flaws that 
the government postponed its adoption. As a result, the task force invited the Center for the 
Study of Democracy to redraft the strategy.  
 
Background 
 
With the active participation of CSD in the fall of 2001 the first comprehensive governmental 
anti-corruption document was elaborated – the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. The 
strategy was largely based on the 1998 Action Plan of Coalition 2000 and ushered in a period 
of public-private partnership against corruption. The government set up an Anti-Corruption 
Coordination Commission, chaired by the Minster of Justice to coordinate the work of the 
various institutions and bodies in the process of implementing the strategy as well as to 
collect, summarize and analyze information on the anti-corruption measures. The commission 
in general failed to fulfill its major tasks focusing only on awareness raising measures.  
 
Development of the new anti-corruption strategy 
 
By 2005, despite achievements in some areas (institutional and legislative infrastructure, 
decrease of administrative corruption, etc.), corruption continued to be a major challenge in 
the process of Bulgaria’s accession to the EU. To respond to the continuing criticism on the 
part of the European Commission the government committed to develop a new anti-
corruption strategy by the end of 2005 to replace the previous one and to re- formulate the 
objectives to be achieved and the measures to be implemented.  
 
In the beginning of January 2006 a draft version of the new strategy, revised by the inter-
ministerial task force, was presented to the government for approval. However, at its meeting 
on January 5 the government decided not to approve it. 
 
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At this point of the process the inter-ministerial task force sought the assistance of the CSD. 
The experts of the Center developed an entirely new structure and logic of the document. 
During the discussions within the inter-ministerial task force some of the proposed measures 
were removed from the document on the insistence of representatives of some of the 
ministries, concerned about their feasibility. CSD’s general point about emphasizing the 
linkages between corruption and other new threats such as organized crime and transborder 
criminality was not accepted. 
 
Most of the CSD suggested measures were kept and on January 12 the government voted the 
proposed draft and adopted the National Strategy for Good Governance, Prevention and 
Counteraction of Corruption 2006-2008. 
 
The new priorities  
 
Notably, political corruption is one of the key areas of concern in the new strategy. Some of 
the policies which the government is undertaking to prioritize relate to the income and assets 
of high level governmental officials. The strategy also seeks to introduce stricter regulation 
of lobbying and mechanisms to guarantee full transparency of the funding of political parties 
and their election campaigns, as well as introduce effective enforcement in this area.  
 
As regards the civil service, the government intends to introduce mobility and rotation of 
the officials in the areas most sensitive to corruption and improve the rules for avoiding 
conflicts of interest when public administration officials move to the private sector.  
 
In terms of specific public sectors, health care and education are highlighted as in need of 
particular attention. These areas have appeared as being of particular concern to the Bulgarian 
public in CSD’s corruption monitoring indexes in the last few years and have also been 
pointed out by the European Commission. The strategy also intends to strengthen the 
specialized and public control over the granting of public procurement and concession 
contracts.  
 
As regards particularly vulnerable areas of the economy, the strategy prioritizes anti-
corruption measures related to VAT fraud and the grey economy. The establishment of 
centralized electronic system for registration of legal entities as an administrative, rather 
than a judicial process, is expected to ease tangibly the corruption pressure on business.  
 
The new strategy also makes progress in terms of its oversight mechanisms. Civil society is 
made part of the process of implementation monitoring and a system of unified statistics on 
the enforcement of criminal anti-corruption legislation – something CSD has been advocating 
for a while - is expected to be put in place.  
 
During the drafting process, CSD insisted that the government body overseeing the 
implementation of the strategy should have a much stronger mandate and institutional status 
than the previous Coordination Commission. As a result, the remit of the Commission has 
shifted away from information gathering and coordination towards policy making and 
control functions. It is now tasked – in addition to overseeing the implementation – with 
translating the strategy into specific policies and ensuring the interface with local and 
international partners.  
 
 
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CSD proposals not included  
 
· Possible  mechanisms to avoid conflicts of interest and exercise effective control over 
the income and property of MPs and magistrates were turned down with the argument 
that the government may not interfere in the independence of the other two branches 
of power.  
 
· The introduction of specific requirements for the integrity of public administration 
officials (including the exercise of control through integrity checks), was rejected with 
the argument that the existing criminal liability for provocation to bribery would 
hamper the practical implementation of such a measure.  
 
· Anti-corruption measures in the economy were not included such as coordination 
between the relevant ministries for limiting the effects of the criminal economy, 
explicitly outlining the areas most sensitive to corruption such as the duty free shops 
and the trade in fuels, etc. The inter-ministerial task force also turned down the whole 
draft section on financial decentralization – a set of important measures aimed to 
ensure the financial independence of the municipalities from the central government, 
including as regards EU funds, and building the capacity of local authorities to 
manage these funds. Financial decentralization has considerable anti-corruption 
potential as an instrument for putting an end to the practice of using the funds from the 
central budget for political influence over the municipal authorities.  
 
 


Development of the second national anti-corruption strategy for Bulgaria

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