"National Assembly Against Organized Crime and Corruption" - Media Reactions

The Bulgarian Parliament needs to take a proactive role in the process of fighting corruption. Inertia and lack of commitment have marked the work of the Parliament in the development of laws and long-term strategies for the combat of corruption and organized crime. The members of parliament lack adequate competence and skills, and have not demonstrated the will to look for effective solutions to the issues of organized crime.

These are the main conclusions of the report "Role of the National Assembly in Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (2001-2011),”  presented yesterday by RiskMonitor Foundation at the Press Club BTA. Mediapool quotes Stoycho Stoychev, an expert at RiskMonitor Foundation and one of the authors of the report. According to Stoychev, the National Assembly has failed to actively exercise its powers to control organized crime and political corruption due to the lack of expertise needed to assist the members of parliament in their work.

For Roumiana Kolarova, a co-author of the report and a political scientist, the topic of combating organized crime and corruption has been over-exploited by all political parties. Political leaders and governments have declared the will to fight corruption and crime in their election programs; others have used it as a key slogan while in power and a main tool for criticism of their opponents. According to Kolarova, it is paradoxical that for the last 12 years each government, the opposition, media and the NGO sector have focused their efforts on the problem of reducing the corruption, and still no substantial progress is visible.

The report includes several key recommendations to law-makers: increasing the level of expertise; developing and adopting a code of ethics for the members of parliament; passing a law on lobbying; creating a standing sub-committee for the oversight of the institutions engaged in the combat of organized crime and corruption.