The movie “Authorities Refuse Access to Information”
is permanently on screen in the City of Razgrad

The team of the Mayor Boyadzhiev
ignores the unwanted questions after an oral order

Stela Kovacheva

If you want to get informed about the work of the municipal administration in Razgrad with the help of the official web site, you will definitely open the section “Announcements.” In January, a single message was published there – signed and stamped by the mayor Dencho Boyadzhiev. There, the mayor personally informs the taxpayers that his administration “will not respond for a 45th time” to a request filed under the APIA by the NGOs Center in Razgrad. Further, Boyadzhiev explains that it is not the business of the civil organization to inquire if the former deputy mayor Stanka Angelova uses an office in the municipality building and if the recently retired financial expert has received honoraria and other remuneration from the municipal budget.

The grounds for the refusal are as usually the protection of the third party’s interests. In the current case these are the interests of the former deputy mayor, who is a current member of the local parliament. The request, the lack of an answer and the grounds for the refusal would not have aroused suspicion for bad intentions if they were an exception and not a rule in the relations between the local authority and the civil society in Razgrad. Considering the fact, however, that the requesting organization had initiated 45 court cases against the refusals of the local government to provide access to information, the picture becomes different. The marathon of questions without answers indicates the stubborn attitude of the mayor’s administration. It can be compared to the behavior of kids in a kindergarten. When feeling uncomfortable by a question, they just respond “I am not going to tell you…”

This is how the mayor of Razgrad Boyadzhiev behaves. This is how his predecessor Venelin Uzunov, a current member of the National Assembly from the group of the political party “Coalition for Bulgaria,” also did. It does not matter if the request filed by the civil organization is related to the expenses for official trips of those in power, to the contracts they have signed, or the amounts that the members of the local parliament have received in the form of salaries. Whatever the question to the power, there is always a third party who is receiving the money of the taxpayers. That third party’s interest always turns more important than the right of the public to receive information on where and why their money goes.

And as the Bulgarian Themis not always enters the temple blindfolded, it happens that she decides that the interest of the third party is more important than the right of the thousands nameless citizens who are ensuring the public officials irresponsibility by paying taxes. In Razgrad, this resulted in sentences against the organization that has dared to ask. That is why the NGOs Center in Razgrad last year had to pay the court fees in Access to Public Information Act cases. The authorities have decided to punish the unruly NGO hoping that it will leave them alone.

It has not happened. The organization, managed by Georgi Milkov, which received the 2007 “Golden key” award from AIP for the Right to Know Day, has continued to ask.
The mayor continued not to answer. Even more, in order to calm down his staff, the mayor’s team released an oral order to the municipal offices, advising the officials not to worry about the unwanted questions because the “organization of Milkov is getting paid to sue us.” Apparently, the mayor understands the value of the “Golden Key” more than literally.

January 2008

This case is part of the book "Civil Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 stories of NGOs)" published by AIP within the implementation of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information” supported with a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).

The whole responsibility for the content shall be taken by the Access to Information Programme Foundaiton and it cannot be assumed under any circumstances that the document reflects the official stance of the  Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Programme for NGO support in Bulgaria.