Two hours lively discussion was held in Haskovo with the participation of the Public Authority Board for prevention against corruption and TI-Bulgaria. The reason about the discussion were the results from our “Local Integrity System Index 2015” annual research.
The discussion was part of the meeting of the Regional Public Council for Combating Corruption in Haskovo, convened as an initiative of TI-Bulgaria, for presenting the results of “Local Integrity System Index 2015” and the specific practices identified in various regional centers in the country.
It was attended by representatives from the Regional Administration – Haskovo, Heads of judicial bodies in the area of the District Police Directorate-Haskovo, business representatives and media.
Haskovo is among the cities with worst results from the survey of TI-Bulgaria for 2015. Poor results are due to a complex of factors – low level of involvement of local political formations (1.75) and businesses (2.00) with the theme of good governance, lack of transparency of the bodies of Ministry of Interior (1.89), ineffective participation media (2.69) and civil organizations (2.76) in supervising the activities of the public institutions. Local authorities are facing a serious challenge to evaluate the deficit of good practices inherited from the previous period (2011 – 2015).
TI-Bulgaria recommend Local Ombudsman institution to be established and more active work by the Regional Public Council for Combating Corruption to be carried out.
In 2016 the team of TI-Bulgaria direct its efforts to work with local government representatives and civil society organizations, business and media in Haskovo Municipality to implement the best practices identified with the results from the research of “Local Integrity System Index 2015” in other municipalities. On April 7, 2016 a working discussion was held with civil society organizations on the topic of the contribution of civil society in building of local integrity system. In the period 5-12 April 2016 representatives of regional media in Haskovo and the region took part in the Master Class on investigative journalism organized by TI-Bulgaria.