Information newsletter
Issue 10(22), October 2005

More transparency is necessary in order to meet EU accession criteria

"Openness and transparency of public service, notably as regards access to public information, are covered by the Law on Access to Public Information, as amended in 2003. Although there has been an increase in the number of decisions issued by the Bulgarian administration on the basis of this law, and its acceptance has increased, the impact of the law remains limited.

Some areas of public administration remain particularly vulnerable to corruption. This is the case for those engaged in public works contracting, including the health sector. There have been several exemptions already from the new law on public procurement which entered into force in October 2004. Claims of non-transparent procedures for procurement and the
granting of concessions are continuing.

A concession agreement was signed for the construction and operation of Trakia motorway in March 2005. This deal is currently subject to a judicial review, after the Deputy Prosecutor General challenged the award of the concession in June 2005 before the Supreme Administrative Court because it did not involve an open tender procedure. While the involvement of private investors through concession agreements should aid the much-needed modernisation of the national transport infrastructure, ensuring the transparency of the process will be crucial for maintaining the confidence of potential future investors and for avoiding lengthy legal conflicts."

The above conclusions of the 2005 Comprehensive Monitoring Report Report of the European Commission largely coincide with the problems of APIA implementation analyzed by Access to Information Programme in its annual access to information report published in 2005. As an example of non-transparent deals, Alexander Kahumov, head of the legal team indicated the contracts with Crown Agents, Microsoft, the Trakia Highway concession and the small state-financed projects (demonstration projects).