“It is quite difficult to describe the attitude of the local administration towards people with small business in Bulgaria”, says Mrs Dilyana Dimitrova from Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. The young woman has been working in her private shop for ready-to-wear clothes in Sofia city center for nearly ten years, but due to shrinking sales and the arrogant attitude of administration officials she decided to close her shop down and continue with her business on the Internet only. She says that many people who could not afford to pay money under the table also did the same and closed down. Dilyana explains that the impudence of the administration went too far when a month ago a local inspector asked for cash, in order to keep her shop open. However, Dilyana had to bring the money to a special secret place in the administration building. The young Bulgarian felt strong humiliation after this case and said that she would not like to go on this way even if the amount demanded by the local administration was very small. Many owners of small tailoring shops, cosmetics shops and other enterprises in Sofia can name similar vicious practices, too. We can not make any business without paying money to the officials, some victims claim. However, they refuse to give particular names, because they are worried that their business may suffer negative consequences. Each private case of corruption in the local administration benefits the white-collar crime and strengthens the shadow economy. Corruption means abuse of power for personal benefits, experts explain and add that the fight against it is a very long and slow process, especially in societies such as the Bulgarian one which are still in a transition period. The problems regarding corruption were in the focus of public attention in Bulgaria at the end of the 90’s. Back then people started to talk about the functions of the state, transparence in the country’s government and civil control over the state administration. The reforms in the local administration which started at that time made things look much better. Now, fifteen years later, the face of the state administration looks much different, yet the main issue still remains. It regards the lack of control aimed at preventing corrupt practices. The Chief Inspectorate with the Bulgarian Ministerial Council currently works over a new project which aims at boosting administrative measures against corruption. Transparency without Borders organization is a partner of the state officials from the Chief Inspectorate in this initiative. It helps them learn how to find corrupt practices and inform the competent authorities about such practices. The training also used recommendations from citizens and business representatives. The administrative procedures in Bulgaria are too slow and are not available online, some citizens complain. They criticize the coordination and the motivation of the people employed at the state administration, the Programming Director of Transparency without Borders Vanya Nusheva explains and adds:

“Our survey is based on a wide range of information. All information sources aim at formulating adequate recommendation regarding amendments to the working practices of the Bulgarian institutions. It is important to see the opposite point of view, the one of the Bulgarian citizens and business. The effective collaboration between all departments and administration officials is of great importance. All rules and regulations in the given structure must be clear, in order to avoid preconditions for corrupt practices. The citizens insist on transparence regarding due payments, procedures and deadlines. On the other hand, the E-government is of great importance for the local business, as it would reduce the paper flow and speed up the administrative procedures, which would benefit the Bulgarian companies”, Mrs Vanya Nusheva concludes.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov