Two days before the release of a European Commission report on Bulgaria expected to be scathing about the country’s law enforcement efforts, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry announced that six officials had been fired for offences “incompatible with the police profession”.
A July 21 2008 statement on the Interior Ministry website said that the dismissals had been ordered variously for corruption, leaking of inside information to criminals and driving while drunk.
The statement said that a senior official from the anti-crime unit in Bourgas had released confidential information to suspects under investigation.
A district police station police office had been fired after accepting $1000 from a foreigner to drop an investigation.
A Sofia police officer was found to have pocketed a 22 leva fine for illegal parking. When the driver complained, the police officer offered him 30 leva to withdraw his complaint.
Three police officers, one in Stara Zagora, another in Stamboliski and a third in Momchilgrad, were fired after causing accidents while driving drunk. The Stara Zagora policeman was found to have been driving with a blood alcohol count of 3.02 per mille.
