If you tune into Bulgarian television news, “koruptsia” is a word that features in reports on a daily basis.
With the EU counselling Bulgaria to crack down on corruption, the country has responded with a stream of arrests. But how does corruption affect the daily lives of ordinary citizens?
It’s a busy lunchtime at a popular Bulgarian-owned restaurant offering Italian cuisine. The restaurant is not in the most attractive quarter of Varna. Indeed, it is surrounded by drab, decaying concrete tower blocks (a legacy of the communist era) and overgrown wastelands. Stray dogs loiter eager to pick up gourmet scraps. Yet amid this impoverished landscape, the car park is bursting with black Mercedes C Class 325s and 320s and an SLK. A Hummer is parked up against the kerb, a Porsche Cayenne S with windows blacked out is within view of the door. How can extreme wealth co-exist beside such blatant poverty? The source of this wealth is possibly corruption, although each Mercedes owner has a legitimate story to tell about how he obtains his fortune. In the restaurant, I dine with my family. The food is good and through a large glass window onto the spotlessly clean kitchen, you can watch the chefs cooking your meal, but my sons are not interested in watching the kitchen staff. They have just noticed a man leaning over at a nearby table. Tucked into the waistband of his Calvin Kleins is a silver pistol. On the table he has five mobile phones and from a table not too faraway, he is guarded by a minder who simply sits and watches. My six-year-old son nudges me, “Mum, it’s the mafia.” Mafia, mob, Hummer and corruption never featured in their vocabulary back home, yet here they have an insatiable urge to know more about this mysterious group.
Corruption has a long history in Bulgaria. During four decades of communism, government control of the media kept high-level corruption out of the public eye. The general belief among the local populace was, “what belonged to everybody, belonged to nobody,” because all property was state-owned. With deprivation widespread, people took what they could, when they could.
The communist collapse of 1989-90 then ushered in privatisation. Well-connected individuals swiped lucrative state assets.
Meanwhile, the economy stagnated, salaries bought less and less, the public became poorer and poorer. Everyone from doctors to professors to judges began essentially taxing the public to subsidise measly earnings and the legacy and mentality of these old ways still exist among ordinary society today.
A London lawyer once told me that if corruption exists in one aspect of a life then it is like a cancer, it seeps through into all areas.
This is good analogy for the way corruption has eaten away at Bulgarian society. Corruption at the top level seems to have little visible impact on everyday life, except that ultimately it’s the ordinary people who suffer when Government ministers award contracts for roads to corrupt friends and associates who skimp on quality to cream off more profit.
The word “Mafiot” is in common usage in Bulgaria. Mention it to the locals and they point to every stylish villa owned by a Bulgarian as well as denouncing their Government as mobsters. The thing with the mafia is that they are very noticeable here and comically stereotypical; black sunglasses, expensive black cars with tinted windows, guns or bulges in clothing to denote guns, expressionless, meaty bodyguards and of course, beautiful wives and girlfriends. They have no interest in us, the ordinary folk of Bulgaria, with little or nothing, no more than a modest pension or a small business income to offer. Nevertheless, most people are afraid to utter the “M” word and certainly no-one was forthcoming to be interviewed about their experiences.
However, if you think that Bulgaria’s mafia is unique, think again. Corruption exists to a large extent in most European countries including the UK. The difference is that it is not as obvious and it does not affect the everyday lives of ordinary people. Mention bribery and corruption to most UK citizens and they have no knowledge or experience of it. Yet it dogs cash-rich businesses with money laundering and protection rackets. Much of the money laundering is done through bars and nightclubs fronted by local British hard-men supported by the Russian mafia and IRA (you didn’t really believe they were no more than political activists, did you?) Bribing local councils, particularly for planning permission still goes on and on a large scale, yet it is done with more sophistication and professionalism than in Bulgaria and again, it usually excludes the average man in the street.
In everyday life in Bulgaria, the signs of corruption are everywhere, from the innocent door stickers on banks and restaurants showing “no dogs” ... and “no guns.” Sometimes corruption works in your favour and you find yourself accepting what is a criminal act as acceptable. The first time I was stopped for speeding, I swiftly dealt with the situation by handing over a 20 leva note, a far easier solution than having to trek across town to pay a fine with two screaming kids in the car. An English friend of mine, who was asked for 50 leva at a roadside speed check, refused to hand over any money on account of this being corruption, and instead asked at which police station he should pay his fine. He was promptly breathalysed and being 0.2 over the limit from the night before, he was told to report to the hospital for a blood test within the hour. At the hospital a sympathetic doctor told him to drink two litres of water at a nearby cafe and come back once he had relieved himself. Since January 1, police corruption seems to be on the decline with EU special measures to target this. Most police officers have taken to writing out “Akts” for speeding and balk at the suggestion of them accepting money, yet their salaries continue to be exceedingly low.
Bernie, a bar owner from Vinitsa has decorated his counter with an array of old Bulgarian and Russian currency; the results of a money exchange gone wrong. He explains, “a couple who came to Bulgaria for the first time foolishly changed 500 pounds on the street thinking they were receiving a good deal.” In reality they had lost their money in exchange for a bundle of old notes, many of which were foreign. Another tourist scam happens at the exchange booths in the cities and resorts. “You think you are going to a kosher bureau of exchange,” said Lisa from York, “yet when I counted my money there was 100 leva missing”. This is commonplace and the stories of tourists getting ripped off in this way are endless. It’s another example of a mafia-led cash cow.
It would seem that many officials are still open to bribery. The architect who designed my house did a wonderful job and for a substantial backhander we were able to get planning permission within two weeks instead of the usual two months. Neighbours of mine were installing 79 recessed spotlights in their new villa and were concerned about the statutory 5 kw provided to each home by the electricity board. For a small sum they were able to upgrade their outage to 15 kw.
After moving into his luxury villa, another expatriate wondered why he wasn’t receiving an electricity bill for his heated swimming pool.
When he enquired at the electricity board, he learnt that the pool had never been officially connected to a power source. The previous occupant, a gentleman with “business links in Russia”, had bypassed the main system and for three years had received free electricity.
While these “minor” bribery issues do not appear to be life-threatening, they are endemic of a nation robbed by people “on the make”, everyone from the top downwards. The increased construction in Bulgaria provides much cause for racketeering and has affected the lives of ordinary people greatly. Much of the construction of large apartment and hotel blocks on the coast are the result of corrupt individuals and companies laundering their illegal capital in order to make it legitimate. There are numerous stories of mafia involvement in large land deals. Nick, a large-scale investor from East London, told me how an estate agent representing him in a substantial land purchase on the Black Sea, received a visit from two thugs who pointed a gun at his head and told him to back off from the deal. An agent in Varna shared a similar experience, and went on to tell me that her client had ties with the IRA and ended up working in partnership with the Bulgarian mafia. It’s not only large-scale land deals which attract attention. A young couple in Balchik were unhappy with the quality of their build and sacked the builder in charge in favour of another company. While the second company were working, a Mercedes pulled up and four men jumped out and held guns to the builders’ heads, telling them to quit the job, because it belonged to their boss. Afraid, the couple from Kent consulted a lawyer who negotiated on their behalf with the first builder. The net result was that the couple had to pay the original builder a substantial sum just to leave the job.
In a recent international study by Transparency International, Bulgaria scored ninth in corruption level in its judiciary and legal systems. Thirty-six other countries took part in the study which rated Paraguay in top place and Denmark at the bottom of the scale .1
To reduce opportunities for corruption in administrative processes, courthouses in Bulgaria were extensively reconstructed so that each staff member could be observed by other staff members and the public. This significantly reduced the ability of court staff to engage in the mishandling of case files.
In 2006, Transparency also ranked Bulgaria as 57th on a “Corruption Perception Index” league table. Namibia, Tunisia, Uruguay and Botswana all scored higher.2
The EU is helping Bulgaria to reshape its political and institutional landscape in line with the rest of Europe. They have helped Bulgaria to address corruption as well as new corruption-related challenges. The danger now is the potential abuse in the disbursement of EU funds.
Help is at hand in the fight against bribery and corruption, and we need no longer sit back and accept it. Anyone in need of advice about corruption should contact Transparency International’s Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC). This organisation was set up to reduce the sense of fatalism related to endemic corruption by providing citizens with the information and tools necessary to pursue their corruption-related complaints. The ALAC process begins with a corruption hotline and free legal advice.3
