SANS reforms – an urgent necessity

published on 11/6/09 1:40 PM

"The concept for SANS's reform" was the theme of the meeting, held on 5 November. On the photo: Minister of the Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Ivan Kostov.

Photo: BGNES

Only 20 months after its inception, the State Agency for National Security or SANS needs urgent reforms. A series of scandals that followed leaking of classified information and a number of internal conflicts compromised the good intentions with which the agency had been created and eroded Bulgaria’s position as a reliable Euro-Atlantic partner in the field of security. In the words of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, all that provoked the dilemma to keep the agency or to dissolve it altogether. With the idea to put an end to SANS’ problems and give a change to that agency to provide efficient system of national security, there was a roundtable held in the parliament on reforms in SANS. Tsvetelin Iovchev, SANS’ new head, presented the model of the reforms. Currently, the parliament is also holding sessions on changing legislation regarding the operation of SANS and the Ministry of Interior. PM Borissov, Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov took part in the parliamentary discussions. Borissov gave SANS a last chance to reform itself and to really fight organized crime and high-level corruption. “The most serious harm that has been inflicted on SANS since its inception is the lost trust of its partner intelligence agencies,” said PM Borissov after he had received the agreement of heads of foreign intelligence agencies to work with SANS’ new administration. This was how he decided on the future of SANS. In his words, a confidence vote can be given to SANS but the agency needs to give credible evidence and reliable information to the court. PM Borissov outlined the new criteria for employees of SANS the following way:

“A highest esteem will be received by those who supply corruption information not only about former but also about current ministers, mayors, agency chiefs, provided there are such ones. This will guarantee that the money we allot to SANS is not spent in vain. We are talking about 48 mln euro. Of them, 92% are spent on salaries. Unfortunately, in the last three months, SANS generates only scandals but we will see how many charges the chief prosecutor will press. Unrelated and irrelevant information is not necessary to anyone. Everybody watches CNN and Euronews – we get the news quickly. However, what happens if Ukraine gets eliminated from the gas trade, well, that’s precious and novel information which we need to make decisions. SANS receives this new credit of trust precisely for that. SANS employees can rest assured that their work is appreciated based on the quality of the materials they submit. Mr. Iovchev, the new head of SANS, has gained my trust and he has been given the green light.”

PM Borissov recommended to reduce the number of SANS’ heads as well as the staff as a whole. Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev recommended an amendment of the legislation on special intelligence devices because there were too many side doors in it. Boris Velchev said he expected SANS to set up a strong legal team to have a more effective work with the prosecutor’s office in the fight against high-level corruption.

“The legal team should be able to guarantee that the information files sent to the prosecutor’s office contain that minimum of legal requirements needed to immediately launch an investigation. The work is really slowed down when we need to return files to SANS for clarification,” said Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev. “I would very much like to read that when national security issues are discussed in the mass media, the natural reaction to be ‘we expect SANS to refer the matter to itself.’ Now it is the opposite case, the prosecutor’s office need to assign tasks to SANS which should not just wait but be quick in responding.”

English version: Delian Zahariev

По публикацията работи: Tatyana Obretenova

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SANS reforms – an urgent necessity

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