Global Integrity Report: Bulgaria - 2010

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

HIGHLIghts

Bulgaria’s performance in the Global Integrity Report: 2010 has slipped since our last assessment of the country in 2008. Although the country continues to demonstrate an impressive commitment to the legal framework that underpins anti-corruption and good governance (no doubt spurred by EU accession requirements), its implementation gap has widened. Despite robust regulations governing the civil service, for instance, cabinet officials exert undue influence in the hiring of lower level civil servants. While an anti-corruption agency does exist, it too is politicized with the continued dismissals of key officials on political grounds. The judiciary is also not immune from political interference, with recent senior level appointments based less on professional qualifications than peddling and political influence (witness the Krasyo Chernia Notebook scandal). Conflicts of interest regulations for members of the legislature, as well as transparency around political party financing, remain weak. It remains to be seen whether civil society groups working on anti-corruption can exert a more substantive role in monitoring public institutions in the long-term due to resource constraints.

From the Reporter's Notebook: “Judge Petkov found me the night before the sentencing and said he had already decided we would all be convicted," Emil Shopov said. Judge Petkov then made a suggestion: "’You just pay not to get into prison,’” recounts Shopov. According to Shapov’s statement, the judge threatened to sentence the group to a total of 30 years unless they paid him a bribe. (The judge was later caught by the police with marked money, but was freed by judges who said more evidence was needed).