site.btaParliament Adopts at First Reading Government's Anti-Corruption Bill, Rejects Opposition's

Sofia, October 25 (BTA) - The National Assembly Wednesday adopted at first reading the Council of Ministers' Counter-Corruption and Unlawfully Acquired Asset Forfeiture Bill, and rejected the counter-corruption bill tabled by BSP for Bulgaria.

The Government's bill was passed with 133 votes in favour (from GERB, Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and United Patriots), 70 votes against and 9 abstentions. The opposition's bill was rejected with 69 votes in favour (from BSP for Bulgaria and one MP of Volya), 73 votes against, and 68 abstentions.

The adopted bill provides for the establishment of a single independent authority responsible for fighting high-level corruption: a Commission on Counter-Corruption and Forfeiture of Unlawfully Acquired Assets, which will include currently existing structures. It will verify the financial interests disclosure declarations, the conflict-of-interest declarations and eligibility declarations of senior public officials. It will carry out checks following citizens' alerts for corruption and conflict of interest, and media publications when these are specific enough. The Commission Chair will be elected by Parliament with simple majority on the MPs' proposal.

The Socialists' bill provided for the establishment of a National Counter-Corruption Service with investigative functions in addition to the operational ones, a director appointed by a presidential decree, and deputy directors elected by Parliament with qualified majority.

BSP for Bulgaria Floor Leader Kornelia Ninova described the Government's bill as imitation of the fight against corruption and a cover-up of vicious practices. She told the incumbent that corruption in Bulgaria is already a national security threat and its removal requires lack of political party bias. In her words, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov signed the 2015 National Strategy for the Fight against Corruption, which envisages the establishment of an independent structure - just as the one proposed by BSP for Bulgaria - and a system guaranteeing that the people working at this body will not be dependent on the National Assembly.

Justice Minister Tsetska Tsacheva said that there are no contradictions between the 2015 National Strategy for the Fight against Corruption and the Government's counter-corruption bill. "When there is information about a corruption crime, the focus is on the investigation and that is why we propose that it be carried out by investigators, who are part of the independent Judiciary," she explained.

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Deputy Floor Leader Hamid Hamid commented that the incumbent have returned to his party's position on anonymous alerts and that is why the bill will be adopted. He added that some disputable elements remain but he expressed the hope that these will be fixed between the bill's first and second reading. He gave as an example the "misunderstood" protection of the person submitting an alert, which could lead to the bill being used as a political bat because this person will not bear any responsibility.

Responding to Hamid's statement, Tsacheva specified that under the bill, this person will not be held responsible for the alert's submission but if the submitted information turns out to be untrue and intent for calumny and insult is established, the person can be criminally prosecuted.

Dimiter Lazarov MP of GERB commented that BSP for Bulgaria's proposal is rather a preliminary design than a bill. It contains many omissions, such as the lack of a term for electing the leadership of the new counter-corruption body, he added.

National Assembly Deputy Chair Yavor Notev (United Patriots) commented that BSP for Bulgaria's bill sets ambitious tasks with formulas that contradict the Constitution's principles and the criminal process set in the Penal Code.

Volya Floor Leader Vesselin Mareshki commented that the Government's bill proposes the establishment of yet another barren body. "We will not allow yet other cousins and relatives to take the helm of a body for the sole purpose of crushing yet another inconvenient political rival," he said.