Boyko Velikov: My main goal is to achieve concrete results in the fight against corruption

Mr. Velikov, nearly a month ago you took up the post of director of the Centre for Prevention and Countering Corruption and Organized Crime. What are the main priorities in your work?  

I accepted this challenge because I think that there is potential and ability to make the Centre sufficiently effective and most importantly, to make it offer concrete results and solutions. More than two years have passed on the project BORKOR and have been invested state funds for the development of a comprehensive model for the prevention of corruption. I think we have to do the maximum in short terms so that to complete this model, which is one of our main priorities. For this purpose we had a meeting with German company INIT, which is contractor of the project. We received assurance that they will present the final product by 21 February. We have a plan when the training and the necessary tests that will be made have to complete. Along with that we met with representatives of “Information services” AD who received part of the project. They are ready to approve also the remaining part of it in February. We talk with them for future cooperation in the need of maintenance of the system itself. I want to add also our intention the project to be accepted by a group of highly educated and authoritative Bulgarian experts to make an assessment of it. Not surprisingly, the technical part of the report of the European Commission on the mechanism for cooperation says that the complex model BORKOR is difficult and complicated to understand.

Then we have to go to concrete work to use this model. I would like to draw attention to the terms because I think that it is important the society to know them. I think that within February and March we have to finalize the project. And this is one of our main priorities so that we can work on the model and, of course, on the other actions that we take.

Our second task is the law. The Cabinet has assigned us by an amendment in the rules to make opinions on prepared by it legislative acts or amendments to already existing ones. So far in the Centre in consultation procedure have passed 17 bills, in 8 of which we have made no notes. But in nine bills we have made specific proposals believing that changes are needed to overcome some corruption opportunities that would be created with certain texts. The Council of Ministers has given three of its rulings to examine them for corrupt practices prerequisites. The government wants this type of documents also to be judged by the Centre.