On April 24, 2003, the Center for
the Study of Democracy brought together experts from the Ministry
of Interior, Academy of MoI, Military Academy, Financial
Intelligence Bureau, Customs Agency, investigative journalists,
academics and Coalition 2000 experts to discuss the
security sector reform in Bulgaria. The discussion focused on:
-
definition of the “new
risks”;
-
security sector reform’ impact on
the birth and growth of the organized crime in the country;
-
characteristics of the Bulgarian
model of the security sector reform compared to the reforms in the
neighboring countries and other transition countries;
-
priorities in countering
corruption in the security sector.
The participants in the discussion
agreed that organized crime is a threat to national security in the
countries in transition because the criminal groups have a strong
influence over economy and their activities are protected by
politicians and the media. In order to study the development of the
organized crime in Bulgaria the phenomenon should be examined in a
regional, European and international context due to the fact that
globalization changes the structure of the criminal groups thus
making them decentralized and limiting their scope of
activities.
A number of concrete measures were
suggested to make security services’ work more efficient:
-
the main tasks of the security
services should be to exert pressure on organized crime and counter
high level corruption;
-
transparent laws on security
services should be adopted. More specifically – there is a need of
new Penal Code and Code of Penal Procedure as well as of a Law on
Protection of Witnesses. Former and present security services
officers should not be involved in the legislative process;
-
security services should be
subordinate to the executive branch but separate from the Ministry
of Interior. A Security Council should be the only security body to
be headed by the President
-
an efficient mechanism to control
the work of the MoI with the participation of the citizens should
be created.
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