February 11, 2003
Ms. Nadezhda Sandolova, Member, National
Audit Office
Ladies and gentlemen, Your Excellencies! I will be
perfectly brief. Indeed, at these forums, for the fifth time now,
we only have a short time for discussions but what I think matters
more is that our number is growing and so are the practical
implications and real actions.
I would like to mention something that I
particularly appreciate about this year's report. I believe it is
of superior quality and this is mainly due to the insightful and
detailed analysis in the section on the economy. In this area the
team of authors have included a great many specific issues and have
put forth specific proposals for ways of addressing these problems.
This is something that will provide an impetus to the work of
everyone behind this coalition, everyone who is some kind of factor
in the state and in civil society.
What would I recommend? As regards the economic
section I would recommend a more detailed examination of certain
areas where, unfortunately, there still appears to lack sufficient
transparency and proper control. Quite a few speakers today
stressed the importance of control, the importance of prevention
but this hasn't been mentioned in the report. My suggestion is for
the colleagues to examine more closely the field of concessions,
for example. At present in Bulgaria concessioning is an extremely
important activity. I think the Chair of BIBA would confirm that
this could become an area with exceptionally high demand in the
future. There is no supply on the part of the state and neither is
there a proper management system. The incoming information and
available data, even as centralized at the Council of Ministers, is
quite unviable. And where there is no information, there is no
basis for good governance and there arises a risk of corruption.
Concessioning is a particular field where non-transparency and poor
management greatly intensify corruption risks.
I'm only sketching out some of the issues.
Secondly, what happened with the control of bank
privatization and the revenues from it? That's an extremely
interesting topic, in my opinion. Recently the President commented
on it but there hasn't been any effect. What is the legal framework
for the implementation of bank privatization and who is to inspect
the revenues?
I think we should not neglect business activity.
That's why I will stress once again: I am extremely pleased with
the work done by the economic team this year. Because it is the
economic environment and processes that are generating corruption
risks. I can only wish our colleagues even more thorough and
productive work in the future. And when I say productive, I mean
focusing on specifics and specific action.
Thank you.
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