At an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon at which European Integration Minister Meglena Kouneva was guest speaker, a senior executive from the Canadian firm Dundee Precious Metals demanded to know what the Government would do to improve the environment for investors.
Dundee is conducting a research project costing about $4 million in Bulgarias Rhodope mountains, but has been frustrated by the failure of Environment Minister Djevdet Chakurov to sign the required documentation for the project to proceed further. The project has also been the subject of protests on environmental grounds.
In March, Dundee was reported to have threatened to withdraw from Bulgaria
During question time at the AmCham general meeting on June 20, Dundee vice president Laurence Marsland said that his firm had come in through the front door, had been given a first class investment certificate, and yet the statutory deadlines for approval of its projects had passed without permission being signed. He said that the system opened the way for corruption.
How are you going to possibly attract serious intellectual capital and stop corruption when the system itself promotes corruption? Marsland asked Kouneva.
The incident was similar to one at an AmCham meeting in May when Marterns John Menzies challenged Interior Minister Roumen Petkov about the business environment in Bulgaria. Petkovs response was to invite Menzies to a personal interview.
Replying to Marsland, Kouneva said that she could not speak on behalf of the environment minister.
She said that Dundee should, if it wanted to complain, take the matter up with the inspectorate within the Cabinet office. According to the rules, Dundee should receive an answer within seven days.
If you have more substantial and provable evidence, present this material to the prosecutors, Kouneva said.
She said that Dundee did not appear to be an isolated case. I believe that several companies deserve a better answer.
However, she declined to deal with such cases on an individual basis lest this be interpreted as special treatment.
Kouneva said that Dundee should work through organisations representing business.
In her main remarks, Kouneva said that the first draft of the European Commissions next report on Bulgarias readiness to join the European Union would be done in mid-July.
No one expected miracles, but it was important for Bulgaria to show that it was sticking to the promises it had made.
There is nothing more important than keeping promises. That is how our relations developed with NATO accession.
She said that the European Council was convinced that Bulgaria and Romania would join the EU on January 1 2007.
We have very limited time to address all the shortcomings.
In its report on May 17, the EC identified six red areas of serious concern standing in the way of Bulgarias readiness to join the EU in January 2007.
Kouneva said that she was optimistic about accession happening as provisionally scheduled, in January next year.
The action plan for EU accession had been approved overwhelmingly by Parliament, and could be interpreted as a way to build what Kouneva termed voter confidence both in Bulgaria and in EU member states.
She said that she had asked EC officials about the consequences of fulfilling the action plan 100 per cent, and had been told that this would permit accession as scheduled.
Kouneva said that by the end of the year, the declarations of assets made by Government officials and the Supreme Judicial Council, recently done on a voluntary basis, would be required by law. The National Revenue Agency would verify declarations made to the National Audit Office.
In other efforts to build transparency, the law on political parties would be revised regarding declarations of sources of funding, and a draft law on lobbying was being prepared.
Kouneva cited legislation on credit institutions and on money laundering as means to improve investigations into organised crime.
By the end of this month, the results of the Governments anti-corruption strategy, adopted in January this year, would be available. The draft Civil Procedure Code would be adopted by Parliament no later than September.
The Cabinet had in the past week adopted regulations enabling the implementation of the Public Procurement Act.
