A decision by Bulgaria’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to pay themselves Christmas bonuses of about 5300 leva each has been dropped after an intervention by Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Dyankov.
 
Earlier in December, the SJC voted the bonuses to themselves for their "services to the judiciary" this year.
 
The decision was out of kilter with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s austerity policy this Christmas, generally meaning that those on the public payroll should not get bonuses.
 
The judiciary’s budget is separate from the state budget and the millions of leva in its coffers from which it planned to draw the bonuses were savings. However, the state subsidy for the judiciary has been severely cut back.
 
Dyankov and Justice Minister Margarita Popova met SJC members on December 23 to explain this to them, along with the overall picture of a shortage of public money.
 
A December 24 report in Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa said that the SJC "showed understanding" for the situation. They had not been aware of the subsidy cut, which was why they had felt able to vote themselves the bonuses, the report said.
 
On December 23, daily Dnevnik said that the Finance Ministry had no say over the judiciary’s budget, but could justify its refusal to transfer the cash for the bonuses by citing the Budget Act which provides for transfers and subsidies to be reduced further than the standard 10 per cent if there is a risk of a Budget deficit.
 
According to a recent amendment to the 2009 Budget Act, the Government can run up a deficit of 500 million leva for the year and implement further cutbacks to ward off a more severe Budget shortfall.
 
Before the December 23 meeting, SJC chairperson Ivan Kolev said that Dyankov could be prosecuted for not transferring the money for the bonuses, because by so doing he was abrogating his duties under the Budget Act.