site.btaTrade Union Bashes WB Spending Review on Policing and Firefighting in Bulgaria

Sofia, August 2 (BTA) - The influential Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) slammed Thursday a World Bank report on the efficiency of spending for policing and firefighting and more particularly its conclusions about the level of personnel costs. "Bulgarian officers in the security sector are paid 2.6 times less than in Sweden, if purchasing power is factored in, and 1.7 times less than the Slovene," CITUB leader Plamen Dimitrov said.

When stories about the report appeared in the Bulgarian press last week, most headlines said the WB found Bulgarian policemen to be among Europe's best paid.

The WB says that within Bulgaria, Ministry of the Interior staff "are among the better paid and have the highest social contributions". It also says: "Contrary to popular belief, police salaries in Bulgaria do not appear low relative to GDP per capita. Accounting for differences in GDP per capita, police salaries in Bulgaria are not lower than in regional comparators and even some old Member States. The average compensation of Bulgarian police officers expressed relative to GDP per capita is at the same level as in Sweden and Slovenia, and higher than in Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. In all cases, the compensation includes the employer social contribution, which is highest in Bulgaria."

Dimitrov said that the report "was initially presented as a World Bank document but the Bank subsequently distanced itself from the survey and it transpired that it was commissioned and paid for by the Bulgarian Finance Ministry".

The Spending Review on Policing and Firefighting, which is available for viewing on the World Bank website, says that it is an input to the first pilot spending review on Bulgaria after the Bulgarian government decided in 2016 to initiate spending reviews to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its spending in the context of a moderate fiscal consolidation process.

CITUB believe that the methodology of the survey "is most unclear and it matches incomparable values and shows odd ratios".

CITUB economist Lyubomir Kostov argued that the report is "an attempt by the executive power branch to endure arguments against increasing spending for public security ahead of the budgeting procedure".

Ventsislav Stankov, President of the CITUB-affiliated Union of Firefighters and Rescuers, said that a firefighter in Bulgaria is paid between 900 and 1,100 leva a month even after wage increases as of January 1 and March 1, 2018.

He also said that Bulgaria spends 0.2 per cent of GDP for fire safety against 0.6 to 1.1 per cent in the Scandinavian countries.

He said though, that the unions agree that the human resources in the Interior Ministry are poorly managed.

They, too, believe that the administrative personnel should be reduced and the police on the beat and firefighters on the job increased.

Stankov further said it is odd that the report recommends keeping unchanged the number of firefighters considering that Bulgaria has the smallest number per 1,000 population: less than 8 against 19 in Austria, to take one example.

The WB report was commented earlier in the week by Interior Minister Valentin Radev
and he said that the Ministry agrees with some recommendations but finds some things outdated and incorrect.