There is complete budget chaos in the introduction of a central 112 emergency number, mediapool.bg reported on November 16.
When the parliamentary committee for transport and communication discussed the proposed 2008 budget for the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications (SAITC), it became clear that no money had been reserved for the installation of a network that would connect the separate emergency 112 centres in the country.
Bulgarian People's Union member of parliament and deputy-chairman of the committee Roumen Angelov said on November 15 that under the Electronic Communications Law, only SAITC was allowed to "touch" the specialised network as it carried other data in addition to the 112 emergency number.
The Finance Ministry said that by decree of the Council of Ministers, the lead in this project had been delegated to Deputy Prime Minister and Disaster Management Minister Emel Etem. Therefore she should split the almost 20 million leva that would be needed between the responsible state institutions, Disaster Management Ministry, Interior Ministry, Health Ministry and SAITC.
The statement from the Finance Ministry prompted fierce reactions from the opposition. According to Angelov the Council of Ministers could not change applicable law with a single decree.
Ataka's Mitko Dimitrov, deputy chairperson for the disaster management committee, said the the Disaster Management Ministry intended to use the 19.7 million leva allotted by Government to add 311 staff to its payroll. The disaster management committee had been told so on November 14.
Deputy chairman of SAITC Stoicho Stoikov said that in the budget of the Disaster Management Ministry there was an additional post of 14.45 million leva earmarked for the 112 emergency number, though it was not clear what this money would be used for. Stoikov said that elsewhere in the ministry's budget was written that "a transfer environment" would be created, but who would build this and with what means it would be financed was not specified.
In early November, Etem announced 62 million leva would be needed for the construction of the 112 emergency number network in the entire country. According to Etem, 20 million had been spent by the State Agency for Information Technology for the construction of an optical system. The first centre had been built in Sofia and the next was planned for Montana.
Bulgaria has been warned by Brussels in October that it would be seriously sanctioned for delays over the introduction of the 112 emergency number. Chairperson of the parliamentary committee Yordan Mirchev said sanctions could amount to one million euro per month.
The single 112 emergency number should accept all emergency service calls including police, fire-department and emergency services.
For this, 300 to 400 employees would have to be found, who would be required to speak at least two foreign languages. Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev said the option had been discussed to try to find those employees among current employees of the Bulgarian Postal Services, though he said it would be extremely difficult to find that many employees who could speak at least two foreign languages.
