site.btaUnder Legal Revision Moved by CC-DB, National Audit Office Vice Presidents to Be Elected without Nomination by President

On August 5 four MPs of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria entered a Bill to Amend and Supplement the National Audit Office Act, the National Assembly website shows. The motion was initiated by Floor Leader Nikolay Denkov and MPs Kiril Petkov, Nadezhda Yordanova and Kristina Petkova.

The reasons to the draft legislation say that it is intended to regulate a possibility for the National Assembly to launch a procedure for the election of a National Audit Office vice president without this being bound to an initiative of the Office's president.

Under the effective version of the law, the two vice presidents of the National Audit Office are elected by the National Assembly on a nomination by the president of the Office. 

In cases where the National Audit Office president has been elected caretaker prime minister, he or she is de facto unable to fulfil the obligation under the National Audit Office Act and nominate vice president. "In the situation of an ongoing political crisis and long terms in office of caretaker cabinets, this may be an impediment to filling up the complement of the Audit Office," the reasons read.

For these reasons, the bill proposes a method of election of vice presidents which is used in other laws regulating the operation of independent regulatory and control authorities, where the full complement of the authority is elected by Parliament without the president having to nominate them, the movers argue.

The incumbent caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev is President of the Bulgarian National Audit Office. The two Vice Presidents are Goritza Grancharova and Toshko Todorov. Under the latest amendments to the Constitution, the Vice Presidents of the Audit Office are eligible for the position of caretaker prime minister.