New Law on Combating Corruption: What are the Changes and What Does it Provide For?

The Ministry of Justice has submitted for public discussion a draft of a new Law on Combating Corruption among Persons Holding Public Office. The aim is to create a new effective body to combat corruption, whose independence is legally guaranteed in the protection of the public interest, the press center of the ministry announced.

The draft provides for the creation of a five-member commission to combat corruption. Its composition will be as follows: one member from the National Assembly, one from the President of the Republic, one each from the general assemblies of the Supreme Cassation Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, and one from the Supreme Bar Council. The commission's mandate will be five years, without the right to be re-elected, and its chairman will be changed every year on a rotational basis, by drawing lots. Every six months, the commission will report to the National Assembly and submit an annual report on its activities.

The law defines 52 categories of persons holding public office who will be covered by it. Among them are the president and vice-president, the MPs, the members of the Council of Ministers, the constitutional judges, those holding leading positions in the judiciary, the members of the European Parliament from the Republic of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian European Commissioners, etc.

The commission's work will be in two directions: the first is the prevention of corruption through the collection and analysis of information, the development and offering of anti-corruption measures. The second - the detection and investigation of so-called corruption crimes, including embezzlement, intentional mismanagement, concluding a disadvantageous deal, individual crimes in office, bribery, influence peddling, money laundering, etc. The commission's bodies will have operational, investigative and investigative powers, which is an explicit requirement of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The Ministry of Justice noted that the creation of the new law is also in implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the recommendations of the European Commission, and was also consulted with the institution. So far, due to unsatisfactory implementation of the anti-corruption reform, the EC has stopped the payment of a total of 258,228,948 euros.

BTA recalls that on January 28, the Parliament finally adopted on second reading the bill amending the Law on the Audit Office, with which the existing Commission for Combating Corruption was closed, and its functions - transferred to the General Directorate "Combating Organized Crime" of the Ministry of Interior and the Audit Office.