A Map of How Municipalities
Disclose Information About EU Funds

A civil coalition collects information about non-transparent practices within the framework of a unique project

Krastina Marinova

“Truth is more useful to those to whom it relates than to those who speak it out.” This quote from Blaise Pascal is the introduction to a research on the level of openness and transparency in the spending of EU funds. The purpose is to collect and analyze the opinions of real participants in the process, in support of the experts working on a report of Bulgaria’s progress in the implementation of development programs financed from the structural and the Cohesion Fund in 2010.  

The project “Supporting the civil monitoring for economic and environment efficient use of EU funds in Bulgaria” is being implemented by the Civil Coalition for Sustainable Use of the EU Funds. The coalition was established in 2005 at the initiative of nongovernmental organizations. The survey encompasses 101 of the most active organizations – municipalities, state authorities, several regional governor’s administrations, NGOs, business.

According to the current results, 40.59% of the questioned municipalities declare that they have a clear, consistent and transparency policy related to partnership and cooperation. This gave the idea to the Varna based Public Environmental Center for Sustainable Development, chaired by Ilian Iliev, to file access to information requests to all 264 municipalities in Bulgaria. They contained five questions: What is the number of the projects proposals that your municipality have filed applying for EU funds; What is the number of the project proposals that have been granted funding under EU funds; The name of the approved projects and the program under which they were granted funding; The total amount of funding for the approved projects and the percentage of the cofounding; The project goals and the achieved results.
 
The initiative of Iliev is a test for transparency and openness of the municipalities. Access to information requests have been filed to 160 municipalities already. The rest are to be sent. In the meanwhile, the team of the coalition summarized the results received up to now in the report “101 Organizations Talk about EU Funds in Bulgaria.”

On June 26, 2010 Varna hosted a two-days workshop of the research teams from different cities who discussed the responses of the municipalities to the filed access to information requests. A conclusion was drawn that the municipalities are as transparent as they should be as beneficiaries of EU funds. Based on the received responses, a ratio of 50 – 50 has been observed. 5 % of the municipalities have refused to provide access.

Here is a response from the Municipality of Sandanski: We are leaving the request without consideration as it does not comply with the requirements of Art. 25, Para 1, item 1, 2, 4 of the APIA.” [1]

None of the municipalities provided information about the achieved results. While the purpose of the teams was to inform the electorate on activities performed in the regions they live.

The researcher from the region of Targovishte Nevena Madzharova pointed out that after winning a project of 40 million BGN, the city square in the neighboring Municipality of Popovo was still being flooded when it rained and the number of stray cats in the streets had even increased.

Curious cases were also presented during the discussion in the city of Varna. There were instances of lack of transparency in terms of approved projects, the amount of money allocated, the results from public procurement tenders within the implementation of those projects, and the final project results.

In response to the APIA request, the legal officer at the Minicipality of Malko Tarnovo asked in return: “Why do you need such information?” And when the researcher from the city of Bourgas from the Association for Strategic Management “Delphi ”explained that the municipality is a body obliged to provide such information under the APIA, the official ended the discussion by ascertaining “I will definitely read that law.”

An instance of good practices of transparency and willingness for cooperation were presented from the Municipality of Lovech. Neighborhood councils with a minimum of 10 members were established under a Regulation of the Municipal Council. These are active structures with a modest annual budget to hold meetings, trainings, and seminars.

In June, a second meeting was held in Varna, where more evidence was presented to confirm the already observed tendencies. The coalition team concluded that a training under the APIA is necessary and will turn for assistance to the Access to Information Programme. 

The participants debated if the request they file to the municipalities should contain the sentence – that the information should be disclosed under the condition of overriding public interest. The coalition team also had to decide if the requests are filed on behalf of physical persons or an NGO and should its statuses be also attached to the request.
 
The coalition will not appeal in court explicit refusals, nor silent, nor violations of the time limits for response. Their purpose is to draw a picture of the discrepancy between the promises of the municipalities and the situation in reality.

The civil coalition believes that some responses are copy-paste based without any efforts by the officials to be precise and complete.

After filing the requests to all of the municipalities and obtaining all of the responses, summarized results will be visualized on a map. The results will be provided to the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria and the Minister on EU Funds Tomislav Donchev.
 

July – September 2010

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.