site.bta Interior Ministry Sheds 3,000 Administrative Staff between 2010 and 2014

Interior Ministry Sheds 3,000 Administrative Staff between 2010 and 2014

Sofia, January 23 (BTA) - The administrative staff of the
Interior Ministry dropped from 14,722 in 2010 to 11,603 in 2014,
 said Interior Minister Vesselin Vouchkov during Question Time
in Parliament on Friday.

He said that there is a sustained tendency to decrease
administrative staff but it is less pronounced compared with
other of the MinistryÒs units.

The Minister said that MinistryÒs tenured staff is some 47,000
people.

In 2013, 165 officials were shed at the then ministerÒs request
compared with 122 in 2012. A total of 1,181 of the MinistryÒs
staff were made redundant before 60 years of age at the request
of then minister Tzvetlin Yovchev.

Vouchkov called this Óa staff massacre.Ô

The Minister recalled that the new Interior Ministry Act, which
bans shedding staff under 60 at the MinisterÒs initiative, took
effect on June 1 2014.
Vouchkov said that boosting border defences has deprived the
countryside from uniformed police, but that police officers have
 already returned to their native departments.

He said that video surveillance has reduced crime rates by 30 to
 40 per cent.

The Interior Ministry will reinstate police attaches in Belgrade
 and Moscow. In June 2013 the then Interior Minister ordered a
detailed analysis about the operations of all representatives of
 the Interior Ministry abroad after which the Ministry recalled
its attaches to Poland, Russia, Serbia, Macedonia and Greece.
The annual living expenses for a police attacheÒs family add to
60,000 euro.

2013 saw a rise in phone scams. A total of 586 cases were
reported and 82 perpetrators were detained compared with 386
reported cases in 2012 and 287 in 2011. The arrested
perpetrators were 62 and 64 respectively. The Minister said that
 a permanent national unit deals with that type of crime.

Vouchkov said that the summer floods caused damages worth 400
million euro. Bulgaria has twice applied for aid from the
European Commission and is set to receive 10,542,110 euro
according to a methodology determined by Brussels but the amount
 is pending approval.