site.btaTransparency International Bulgaria Survey Presents 2015 Ranking of Municipalities According to Integrity Principle

Transparency International Bulgaria SurveyPresents 2015 Ranking of Municipalities According to Integrity Principle


Sofia, April 11 (BTA) - The municipalities of Kurdzhali, Vidin, Varna and Haskovo stand at the bottom of the local governance ranking according to the integrity principle. It was drawn up by Transparency International Bulgaria and was presented at the BTA Press Club on Monday.

The index is topped by Sofia, Bourgas, Stara Zagora, Rousse and Gabrovo.

The index covers the 27 municipalities which are regional centres on the territory of Bulgaria. It is based on the national integrity system model and includes the major governance institutions concerned with anti-corruption at local level. The survey will be conducted every year.

The municipalities ranked at the bottom do not have a developed anti-corruption system, Kalin Slavov commented. "For example, is it possible that the local community in a city like Kurdzhali does not know who its municipal councilors are? This means that the connection between voters and election positions has been torn," Slavov pointed out.

These municipalities lack public procurement registers, there is no ombudsman in Haskovo, Vidin and Varna, and there is a lack of activity of the regional anti-corruption regional councils.

Transparency International also discussed the so-called anonymous municipal councils, meaning that in some municipalities like Kurdzhali and Blagoevgrad information about the municipal councilors except their names cannot be found anywhere. In Bourgas, however, each one is presented in the official site of the municipality with names, priorities, proposals and general activity.

There is a lack of understanding how important a code of ethics in the work of a municipal council is. There is one case (in Pernik) where a Code of Ethics of Municipal Councilors has been adopted, Katya Hristova of the NGO said.

Decisions of the municipal councils frequently prove illegal and are respectively returned by regional governors.

Councilors have a considerable contribution at the discussion of the annual municipal budget in just one-fifth of the surveyed municipalities. Control of the implementation of municipal council decisions is purely formal in over half of the studied municipalities. In addition, there is no public information about the result of control on the management of municipal property and municipal companies.

Organisation of reception offices and regular contacts with the public is not a sustainable practice for two-thirds of the municipalities. A civic council with the Municipal Council has been established in only one municipality - Pleven.

Only six mayors from the previous mandate have declared their governance programme when they took office and just one third of the mayors maintain a standard of public accountability for the implementation of their programmes.

About half of the mayors maintain a public accountability standard for what projects are being implemented by the municipality and what is their outcome.

Less than half of the mayoral teams maintain up-to-date information about the implementation of municipal budgets.

Mayors find it difficult to maintain instruments for feedback with the public.

Mayoral team codes of ethics exist at less than one-fifth of the municipalities.

Nearly half the municipal administrations at regional centres are not ready to provide e-services. Only one-third provide the opportunity for the digital payment of taxes and fees.

Less than one-fifth of the municipalities maintain an up-to-date digital public register of municipal properties.