site.btaNo Further Layoffs Planned in Interior Ministry System

No Further Layoffs
Planned in Interior Ministry
System


Sofia, January 5 (BTA) - Interior Minister Vesselin Vouchkov
said on Monday that no further layoffs are planned in the
Interior Ministry system. Speaking to journalists after a Police
Officer of the Year award ceremony, Vouchkov said that a week
from now he will unveil his plan for an administrative reform in
his department, but with a total staff of 47,000, the Interior
Ministry services cannot afford to reduce their personnel any
further. "There will be no more layoffs, but the administration
is too big and we need to make internal adjustments," he said.

He estimated that 935 million leva will be enough to pay the
wages to a staff of 47,000 for a year, so this will be the
target amount in 2015.

Bulgaria is technically ready to join the Schengen border-free
area, and even though the country is experiencing increased
refugee pressure, it is coping better than some other countries
which already belong to the Schengen area, Vouchkov said.
Bulgaria's Schengen entry is a purely political issue, and the
country continues its efforts to convince all member states to
support it, he said.

According to him, there is no problem for the Armed Forces to
deploy a very small number of troops temporarily to help address
the situation on the Bulgarian-Turkish border in the coming
months until the border fence is extended and roads are built
along the frontier. This will not require any legislative
changes, according to Interior Ministry lawyers, he said.

Conventional crime in Bulgaria decreased by 9 per cent in 2014,
Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Svetlozar Lazarov said.
Lazarov noted that the Ministry can be proud of its performance
in 2014. Some 600 officers seconded by regional directorates of
the Interior Ministry and 400 border police officers from the
country's interior are still working along Bulgaria's border
with Turkey, he said.

Between 2013 and 2014, Bulgarian law enforcers disrupted about
five criminal groups which were like "murder factories" and some
of the cases have reached the courts, Lazarov said. Very good
results have also been achieved in the fight against
international drug trafficking, as the amounts of drugs seized
by the authorities have increased severalfold, he said. PK/VE


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