Who watches over the watchers? And considering how widespread allegations of corruption are in Bulgaria, who watches the watchers that watch the watchers?
Consider the case of SANS, the State Agency for National Security, whose remit ranges from investigating top-level corruption to international terrorism, from fighting organised crime to ferreting out threats to Bulgaria’s "strategic assets".

For the first year-and-a half of its existence, it had no Parliamentary oversight, but that should not be too surprising in Bulgaria, where two key security agencies subordinated to the presidency have no oversight by the legislature, not even an organic law governing their activity, only regulations dating back to 1990. (The agencies in question are the National Intelligence Service, the former first directorate of the Communist-era security apparatus, and the National Protection Service, the former fifth directorate of the State Security.)

The absence of oversight is not the only reason why the public quickly lost faith in its ability to meet the heavy expectations, but it played an important part. Without meaning to slight all its investigations, how much can you trust an agency that made headlines for wire-tapping the phones of journalists and politicians, while at the same time reportedly burying an investigation into corrupt practices in ministries headed by appointees of one of the parties in the ruling coalition?

There are different ways of going about oversight, of course. Prior to 1989, the practice was for everyone to watch everyone else, especially if you wanted to build some kind of a career, hence the endless stream of revelations about collaborators of the Communist-era State Security.

Their legacy of that approach is the sense of mistrust that pervades Bulgaria’s public life. Whom can you trust if hundreds of people – the president himself, ministers, MPs,  judges and prominent journalists – were found to be on file with the State Security, their exact deeds still unknown?

Once lost, how do you regain that trust? I am certain that I was not alone in wondering, after hearing that SANS headquarters were full of police officers on August 3, whether the new Interior Minister ordered a search of the premises to find incriminating evidence. Not that he would find any, if, as some Bulgarian media suggested, piles of documents in various state institutions have been destroyed in the wake of the elections to cover up nefarious activity.

Beyond the allegations, regardless whether there was any grain of truth to them – and if there was, what does that say about Bulgaria and its government? – the very fact that such claims surfaced is ample evidence of mistrust.

Boiko Borissov has the chance to show that the trust vested in him is not misplaced. Transparent oversight and accountability is the only way he will succeed.