Reporting to the executive bureau of the Bulgarian Socialist Party on June 3, party leader and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev slightly inelegantly likened outgoing Justice Minister Georgi Petkanov to a cat who had become a bit too tired to chase mice.

Petkanov was Interior Minister in the previous government and was shifted to the somewhat less significant post of justice when the current governing coalition came into power in 2005. In all this time, and this by no means is solely the fault of Petkanov, we have seen very few mice, at least mice of any size, in the trap.

Petkanov’s departure was among the announcements made by Stanishev the day before, notably including a plan to set up a National Security Agency.

It is difficult to decide what to make of the plan for this agency. It seems that it will have under its aegis a number of entities, including the National Security Service, the National Service for Combating Organised Crime, military counterintelligence, the Financial Intelligence Agency, the customs intelligence service and the tax police. The agency will report to the Cabinet, although some have taken this to mean that the reporting line will be to the Prime Minister.

One interpretation of the move has been that it is intended to clip away the considerable power of the Interior Ministry, or if you will, specifically the Interior Minister. Another theory has it that it is an attempt by the Prime Minister’s office to counterpoise the power of the President’s office, given current reporting lines by intelligence agencies to the head of state. Some reports have it that the agency, supposedly modelled on United States practice, is being set up at the behest of Western governments that want to see improvements in action against organised crime. Stanishev, at the same BSP meeting, said that the main reason for setting up the agency was that it would be evidence of determination to strengthen the authority of the state to deal with organised crime. He said that the Government needed to show determination to reform the judicial system, so that the cat could successfully hunt mice.

There are various theories and practices regarding security and intelligence services. Some prefer consolidation, much as was attempted in the United States after the September 11 terrorist attacks, given that it was held that co-ordination and communication had been proved inadequate to staving off those acts of terrorism.

However, there are those who have concerns about the establishment of monolithic security structures, perceiving such structures as overly powerful and a possible risk to civil liberties. After Stanishev’s announcement, one commentator in the Bulgarian-language media suggested that whoever ran the new agency would in fact run the state.

Aspects of the new agency that are not yet publicly known, even if they have been decided, include who will appoint its head; precisely how it will function, given the risk that centralisation may not necessarily mean better communication and enhanced efficiency; how it will be held accountable and by whom; and whether it will be a large structure with experts of its own, or whether it will simply serve as a clearing-house and referee among subordinate agencies.

There is an obvious risk that, rather than counter inter-agency rivalry being lessened, it will in fact be aggravated. If the Interior Ministry is to retain control of some policing functions, how will relations - and possible tensions - between the two entities be managed? Importantly, will there be a process to ensure the commitment of everyone in the security services to combating organised crime, and to weed out anyone who may be compromised in some way from fulfilling such a commitment?
Until we know more about Mr Stanishev’s cat, judgment must be reserved.