site.btaMP Atanassov Sees "Severe Problems", Information Leaks, Deficient Staffing in Security Sector

MP Atanassov Sees "Severe Problems", Information Leaks, Deficient Staffing in Security Sector

Sofia, January 14 (BTA) - "The security sector is beset by severe problems which are not publicly visible," Atanas Atanassov MP of the Reformist Bloc told a news briefing at the National Assembly on Thursday. He met the media to explain his reasons for resigning as chairman of the parliamentary Internal Security and Public Order Committee.

The MP specified that some exceedingly important statutory instruments regulating the security sector were adopted last year, but some of them had "dramatic flaws" which have not been addressed. "Part of our campaign promises were not kept," Atanassov admitted. In his words, nothing has been done to reform personnel policy in the security sector.

"It should be known that by today's date the security sector and its overall personnel policy is manually controlled by the Prime Minister," the MP said. "The sector's governance model resembles 'personnel trading', catering to the interests of certain oligarchic circles," he argued. "In this way, the law is violated and the personnel of the Interior Ministry and the other security services are demotivated," Atanassov said. "The career growth of Interior Ministry employees and the appointments of senior officials are not based on competition," he said.

"In practice, police resources are massed in certain large settlement, while entire regions remain unmanned. One junior precinct inspector serves as many as seven settlements, and this is a major problem in conventional crime control," the MP pointed out. "Staffing is severely deficient, and resources are misdeployed," in his opinion. As an example, he cited the Sofia Directorate of the Interior Ministry, where the crime clearance rate has been "deplorable" for three successive years.

"The State Agency for Technical Operations [which handles the use of special surveillance means] is beset by serious internal problems: in practice, there is an existing and intact mechanism there for leaking vital classified information to addressees who are not cleared to receive it," Atanassov said. "This information is abused and is used to cover up crimes," he insisted. The MP sees another problem in what he described as "an inadmissible symbiosis between the prosecution service and the State Agency for National Security".