Bulgaria finally has a new amended Interior Ministry’s act after the document was published in the State Gazette on August 5. According to the constitution, an act enters into force three days after being published in the State Gazette unless something else is provided in it. In this case the day when the document will become part of Bulgaria’s legislation should be August 8.
The debate over the new act has been ongoing for months in Parliament in the light of growing criticism from the European Commission about Bulgaria’s lack of success in fighting organised crime. Now all the changes in the ministry will depend on the new regulations provided in the act.
Two major changes are conceived in the law. The first one concerns the ministry’s structure. At the moment it has two national services called the National Police Service (NSP) and the National Fire Safety and Protection of Population Service. It also has 15 special directorates including the Operative and Technical Information Directorate (OTID) and the Operational Search Directorate (OSD). The latter two were the subject of many debates after it became clear that they had used a number of special intelligence methods in various investigations without producing evidence that can stand up in court. This prompted opposition MPs to suggest that those two directorates have been used for purposes other than fighting crime. The new act provides for a total of five chief directorates to be set up, each adopting some of the functions of the current NPS: Chief Directorate Criminal Police, Chief Directorate Security Police, Chief Directorate Border Police, Chief Directorate Pre-trial Investigations, Chief Directorate Fire Safety and Rescue. The two troublesome departments, OTID and OSD, will be united in a newly created Special Directorate. The head of this new directorate will be appointed by the minister like the other directors. The services of the current Migration Directorate in charge of monitoring foreigners’ activity in Bulgaria will be covered by the work of Chief Directorate Security Police.
Another new body is the Internal Security Directorate which will fight corruption and crime within the ministry.
Besides the purely structural changes, the new act stipulates the duties of the minister and the ministry’s second man in power, the Chief Secretary. The latter now is called general commissioner of Interior Ministry.
When Roumen Petkov resigned earlier this spring after being found to have met people under investigation he said that he held the meetings in his professional capacity for the benefit of the ministry’s work. Now MPs have decided to leave the operational works entirely to the General Secretary to avoid confusions such as the one involving Petkov. Now the act describes the minister as the “the person who leads, co-ordinates and controls the execution of state policy on protection of citizens’ rights and freedoms, on national security and public order”.
Everything else has been left for the General Commissioner who is described as “the supreme professional position in the ministry’s hierarchy”. A major change is the introduction of deputies to the General Commissioner. The act did not say exactly how many they will be but it says who will appoint them: the minister. In an attempt to strike a balance, MPs decided that the General Commissioner will be appointed by the President at the Cabinet’s request. The fact that the General Secretary will not be able to pick his deputies may prove to be a source of conflict between him and the minister. Furthermore, the deputies might, at the end, create a second centre of power other than the heads of the chief directorates. Now all that needs to be done is for the Council of Ministers to adopt the document that will stipulate all the important details about the ministry’s work under the new act. Without it, the act will remain just what it is at the moment: a nice piece of paper.
