The series of anticorruption meetings in Varna`s regional administration started with discussion, led by TI-BG`s execitive director Mr. Kalin Slavov.
Following an invitation of the regional governor prof. Andriyana Andreeva he met municipal administration representatives and local businesses, lawyers and media. The discussion`s highlights were the Whistleblowers law and the implementation of ESG standards in securing funding and access to public resources.
Bulgarian business will be required to implement good governance principles, said Mr. Slavov. Acording to him external factors like the need for financing and insurance will boost the process. Financial institutions most of which are part of large international structures haave already started to implement Business Integrity standards in their own processes.
This is apllied to social responsibility and environment ass well as to the internal rules for good corporate governance. Transfer of this policies to partners, clients and suppliers is a main business integrity principle.
Main focus of the discussion were those anricorruption measures that willl help municipalities to put in order the organizational culture of the structures they are managing. In order to guarantee good governance based on clear action rules which include the anticorruption measures in all administration levels, we need collective actions between the main “players” in the public sphere which are the public institutions, businesses, civil society and media.
The lecturer was categorical that change of public instituions organizational structure will be very slow and hard to make because it needs transparency and accountability in all directions – from public procurement to website information.
A lot of the questions were on the application of the Whistleblowers law.
During the discussion were presented the anticorruption standards which require the apploication of a certain risk management approach. Together with the regulatory clarifications regarding the protection of persons reporting violation of Bulgarian legislation which information they became familiar with in a work context, the participants in the meeting received clear internal rules instructions which write down each step from the signal submission, through its verification to the changes that mey be needed in any public administrations activitites.
Mr. Slavov insisted that the Bulgarian anticorruption legal frame work is very good, the issues are in the human managing factor.
A new EU directive on the synchronizing of anticorruption legislation is being prepared but it doesn`t add anything new to ours, said Mr. Slavov. According to him the hard part is using the legall tools and the change of organizational culture.
Mr. Slavov reminded of the Corruption perception index 2023 results that show that the best examplles in our country are Burgas and Ruse munnicipalities. He explained that there are standards that public institutions may use while they are developin and implementing their internal control systems. It is not enough to only follow the letter of the law but to upgrade in order to get better transparency and accountability. As an example Mr. Slavov he gave public procurement where municipalities follow the legislation requirements but no public discusions are performed to achieve shared responsibility.
At the end prof. Andreeva called on mmunicipalities, citizens and companies to be active and propose apecific anticorruption measures.