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Bulgaria introduces plan to combat corruption in Interior Ministry

Xinhua, September 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bulgarian Ministry of Interior announced on Tuesday a plan for preventing and combating corruption in its ranks in a bid to resolve the issue and raise public trust.

"The purpose of the plan was to specify real, effective measures for rapid implementation, and outline longer term measures, which will be later put into details," Philip Gounev, Deputy Minister of Interior said at a press conference.

Implementation of effective analysis and verification of the asset declarations of the employees, as well as improving the integrity testing, were among the general measures to tackle corruption, Gounev said.

The ministry would also develop 32 e-services in activities such as traffic control in order to reduce the direct contact between citizens and officials, he said.

"We want to develop a comprehensive vision for e-government in the Ministry of Interior, and these services are an important step in this direction," Gounev said.

The ministry would also develop an internal information security system with the aim of preventing the possibility of trading with information, he added.

The development of a clearer system of polygraph tests was another measure to combat corruption, Gounev said.

To stimulate employees' initiative was among the long-term measures. It is a problem now, and money is only part of the problem, Gounev said.

According to a survey conducted by Alpha Research Agency, only 17 percent of Bulgarians had a positive opinion about the Ministry of Interior's performance and 39 percent had negative attitude in June 2015, against 23 percent and 33 percent in February 2015 respectively.

Meanwhile, official data from the ministry show that in 2014 the ministry received 208 complaints about corruption of its employees. A total of 14 of them led to initiation of pre-trial proceedings, while evidence of committing a disciplinary offense were found in 29 cases. Endit