site.btaParliamentary Anti-corruption Committee Adopts First Reading Amendments to Public Enterprises Act

The Parliamentary Committee on Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption adopted on first reading a Bill amending and supplementing the Public Enterprises Act, submitted by Anna Aleksandrova of GERB-UDF and a group of MPs. The amendments were approved with 12 votes in favour and seven abstentions.

Georgi Krastev of GERB-UDF presented the bill, explaining that the reasons for its adoption lie mainly in two areas. “Through it, we are implementing the guidelines we have received from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in response to the measures for combating corruption and promoting integrity in enterprises. We have also undertaken such a commitment to the European Parliament and the Council with the approval of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, where such a reform is included,” the MP said.

He explained that for the successful implementation of the reform, it is necessary to introduce the obligation to implement corruption risk management systems in state-owned enterprises. These systems include the selection of senior officials, measures to prevent conflicts of interest, adoption of a code of ethical conduct, and the introduction of an integrity officer. The functions of the Public Enterprises and Control Agency (PECA) are expanded, assigning it the responsibility to adopt such a corruption risk system, monitor its implementation, and adopt a code of ethical conduct for persons in public enterprises. A three-month period from the entry into force of the law is provided for bringing the secondary legislation in line with it and for APEC to adopt the corruption risk management system and the code of ethical conduct.

During the debate on the bill, Georgi Hrisimirov of Vazrazhdane stated that, once again, with these commitments under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, “you will mislead your partners into thinking that we are making changes to combat corruption; these changes will not work — they are well-intentioned wishes, like everything else done in this area.” According to him, corruption cannot be tackled with cosmetic changes but through decisive action and personal conviction, adding that “things start from the top, not from the bottom.”

Svilen Trifonov of Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC–DB) commented on the measures for preventing conflicts of interest in the bill, noting that the Anti-Corruption Act already contains such measures, and the fact that they are not directly incorporated into this bill does not mean they are not mandatory for everyone. He also said it remains unclear how the proposed procedure would actually counteract corruption.

The Ministry of Justice called for the bill to be supported. “The introduction of an integrity officer has been coordinated with and recommended by the OECD Corporate Governance Committee,” said Lyubomir Talev, a department head at the Ministry. He further explained that anti-corruption measures should remain in the bill since the Anti-Corruption Act applies to public officials, whereas this bill concerns oversight of individuals in public enterprises.