Strengthening the anti-corruption capacity of the prosecutor’s office of Republic of Bulgaria

The project has been implemented with the financial support from Institutional Development Fund for fight against corruption of the World Bank. It represents an initiative of the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Bulgaria which has been carried out in partnership with TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL-Bulgaria within July 2009 – September 2010.

The project objective is strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Bulgaria to perform monitoring and counteract corruption, including corruption among prosecutors.  During implementation of this initiative the Bulgarian national representation of the international anti-corruption organization TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL carried out:

– Sociological survey among prosecutors and citizens forming a ground for a comprehensive analysis at the topic “Effective fight against corruption. Ethics and professionalism at the Prosecutor’s Office activity”. The survey aims to specify the results from the reforms undertaken by the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Bulgaria and to follow the change of the public perceptions and attitudes regarding the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts of the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Bulgaria;

–  A documentary reflecting the work over the project implementation and the main achievements of the  realized initiative;

–  Developed a training programme and held a number of training seminars focused upon  questions of professional-ethical standards at the work of magistrates, ways of effective cooperation while investigating corruption crimes and problems of inter-institutional cooperation in this area;

– Created a catalogue for best practices of opposing corruption at the Member states of EU, USA and other countries;

– Concluding conference for presentation of the main results from the work over the project.

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCING THE COMPETENCE OF THE SPECIALIZED PROSECUTOR’S OFFICES

The expert-analytical activity was structured in three basic activity directions:

• Study and analysis of recruitment collateralization, the degree of specialization, the needs for qualification improvement and optimization of management for the magistrates from the specialized Prosecutor’s Offices (carried out in 2012);

• Examination and analysis of the applied good practices in management, of the prosecutors qualification improvement at Member states of EU with similar specialized prosecutor’s offices (implemented in 2012);

• Development of a training strategy and of a directory for organized crime fighting (carried out at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013).

On the first stage of the activity an independent external expertise was performed directed at the recruitment collateralization, the degree of specialization, the needs for qualification improvement and the management optimization for the magistrates from the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office and the Appeal specialized Prosecutor’s Office for organized crime. The study was focused on finding solutions and launching of contemporary methods for management and on qualification improvement of the prosecutors and investigators from the specialized prosecutor’s offices.  Besides, comparative research and survey of experience of four Member states of EU with similar specialized structures for investigation of organized crime were made.

The implemented survey and analysis played the part of a tool for carrying out of strategies and politics for development of the institutional capacity of the prosecution service, and in general, for enhancing the efficiency of the criminal proceedings according to the deals connected to the organized crime. In details, the results from the research done served as a basis for implementation of other two activities from the initiative: study of experience of the four Member states of EU where specialized structures for criminal proceedings of organized crime have been established, as well as development of a training strategy and of an educational aid for fight against organized crime.

In 2013 the activity was focused upon development of a training strategy and of a directory for fight against organized crime. The training strategy for management and improvement of   the competence of specialized structures of Prosecutor’s Office is a document describing the main directions of activities promoting development of the institutional capacity of the specialized structures of prosecution service. It lays down the common and specific goals of tuition of the specialized prosecution service units’ officials, the basic approaches for implementation of training activity, the main types of education and the topic structures which are to be carried out in the process of institutional formation of these units.  Significant components to the training strategy are the two tuition programs which could be used both as tools for implementation of the strategy common goals and as a source for holding of training seminars on prosecution service projects. The other component of TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL-Bulgaria expert-analytical activity was the development of a Directory for organized crime fighting. The directory was prepared by leading specialists in the criminal law, criminal proceedings law and forensic science areas. It was used as a tool for tuition and qualification improvement of the prosecution service officials from the specialized prosecution service units. The developed analytical product has a volume of 600 pages and is structured in several basic parts which represent detailed information regarding legal regulation of the fight against organized crime in Bulgaria, models and rules for operation with organized crime cases, as well as information regarding the experience of specialized structures for organized crime combat at some Member states of the European Union.  Based on the developed directory, experts from TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL-Bulgaria took part in the training team which held a series of tuition seminars in the autumn of 2013 for representatives of the specialized structures for fight against corruption established in 2012 at the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Bulgaria.

The results from the studies and the developed directory were presented at a conference with a topic “Suppress of Organized Crime and of the Crimes Related” organized on 18 September 2013 from the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Bulgaria.