UK ambassador in Sofia Steve Williams has welcomed the Bulgarian Government’s concrete suggestions to fight corruption and organised crime, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) said.
 
Williams was speaking after Prime Minister Boiko Borissov met the British envoy and Vivienne Davies, programme director of Crown Agents, the UK consultancy assisting reform of customs and financial administrations in Bulgaria.
 
Borissov said that the Bulgarian Government had the political will to impose clear rules and to crack down on smuggling rings and customs fraud, a Government media statement said.
 
Davies expressed the wish of Crown Agents to be part of the process of change in the managements of the country’s customs and tax-collecting authorities, BNR said.
 
Bulgarian media reports on September 17 2009 said that about 679 customs officers were to lose their jobs.
 
The reports quoted Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister as saying that 553 customs officers and 126 officials in senior positions would be made redundant.
 
The number of customs houses would be cut from 17 to nine, some customs offices would be shut down and others opened elsewhere, making a total of 39. Seven customs points would be closed, making a total of 34, Dyankov said, according to Bulgarian news agency BTA.
 
Structural reforms of the Customs Agency were part of the strategy to produce a balanced Budget in 2009, Dyankov said.
 
Experience had shown that if corrupt employees remained in the Customs Agency, they would find ways to get around structural reforms.
 
He said that the former management of the Finance Ministry had failed to implement 263 recommendations by Crown Agents. Further, communication by the ministry had been poor and for a long time there had been no meetings between the finance minister and Crown Agents.