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| Countering Corruption in Public Administration: The Spanish Experience
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Round table
February 19, 2004
Center for the Study of Democracy
Summary of the discussion
 Cooperation, specialization, and harmonization of legislation are the three leading principles in countering corruption and organized crime, senior Spanish magistrates underlined during a round table discussion hosted by CSD. The event, organized on February 19, 2004, by Coalition 2000 was aimed at discussing the opportunities for implementing Spanish experience in countering corruption and organized crime.
 In his opening remarks Mr. Alfredo Martinez Serano, Deputy Head of Mission of the Spanish Embassy in Bulgaria, explained the objective of the visit of the Spanish magistrates to Bulgaria and their activities under a project for countering money laundering implemented jointly with the Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Agency.
 The work of Coalition 2000 and the Center for the Study of Democracy in the area of anti-corruption was presented by the CSD Program Director Mr. Boyko Todorov. Mr. Todorov focused on the relation between corruption and organized crime, grey economy, drugs trafficking and money laundering. The existence of such connection was established by Coalition 2000 experts in the course of examining the conditions conducive to corruption and is now a separate area of research within the framework of the coalition. Mr. Todorov also emphasized on the cross-border dimensions of corruption which place new challenges on regional and international level.
 The Spanish contribution to countering corruption and money laundering in Bulgaria was presented by Mr. Daniel Campos, Prosecutor at the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office Anti-drugs, National Court of Justice. Mr. Campos briefed the participants on the work of the Spanish experts on examining the existing mechanisms for countering money laundering in Bulgaria and pointed out some concrete recommendations that have been formulated in the course of the work. The proposals include legislative amendments to both substantive and procedural criminal law as well as organizational changes in the system of law enforcement institutions dealing with money laundering. According to him, the existing authorities lack the necessary capacity to effectively counter complicated criminal conduct such as organized crime. This situation, Mr. Campos said, could be overcome by setting up specialized bodies comprising well trained personnel to deal exclusively with such criminal offences.
 Mr. Jose Antonio Choclan, Magistrate, General Judicial Council, pointed out that money laundering is not an isolated issue and should be therefore considered in the broader context of organized crime and corruption. He explained that one of the main objectives of the Spanish experts when working with Bulgarian authorities is to help them understand the actual situation in the country because the effectiveness of any measures depends on the adequate knowledge of the problems they target. Organized crime, Mr. Choclan added, is a cross-border phenomenon that is hard to be dealt with by the national legislations alone. It is therefore necessary national legal systems to open themselves towards European and international law. Commenting on the remarks made by Mr. Campos, Mr. Choclan explained that modernizing criminal law and procedure should be accompanied by respective adjustments to the laws governing the structure and powers of the respective authorities dealing with these problems. According to him, even the best criminal legislation would not be effective if the competent bodies lack the adequate organization and competence. In conclusion Mr. Choclan paid attention on the fact that up to now not a single person has been convicted for money laundering in Bulgaria.
 Some specific recommendations regarding the reform of criminal law and procedure were suggested by Mr. Luis Salinas, Magistrate, Penal Court at the National Court of Justice. Some of those include the introduction of assets forfeiture mechanisms, special investigation means, undercover agents, criminal liability of legal entities, etc. Mr. Salinas confessed that many of these measures may face the resistance of the competent institutions because of their incompliance with Bulgarian legislative traditions, but he also pointed out that the spread of organized crime requires some traditional concepts to be left behind in the name of the much more significant task of effectively combating such serious forms of illegal activities such as organized crime.
Mr. Salinas also presented the structure and work of the Spanish National Court of Justice: a court with national jurisdiction dealing among others with offences against the state, financial crime, trafficking in drugs, some forms of organized crime, etc.
 Mr. Javier Zaragoza, Deputy Prosecutor at the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office Anti-drugs, National Appeal Court, underlined that organized crime has become a phenomenon of international nature and therefore requires an international response. In the same time, according to Mr. Zaragoza, organized crime reveals a high degree of specialization, which in turn calls for the same specialization among the competent governmental institutions and bodies responsible for its counteraction. Talking about specialization, Mr. Zaragoza referred to some examples of specialized bodies dealing with particular forms of criminal conduct such as the three specialized prosecution offices in Spain dealing with drugs trafficking, terrorism and corruption, the national anti-mafia prosecution office in Italy, the specialized units of the German prosecution office dealing with organized crime, the new French law against organized crime, the federal prosecutors in the U.S., etc. Mr. Zaragoza also mentioned that combating organized crime and corruption is a responsibility not only of the judiciary, but also of the executive, especially the police.
 The present situation in Bulgaria was briefly described by the CSD Chairman Dr. Ognian Shentov. Dr. Shentov explained that Bulgarian governmental institutions still lack the necessary capacity to counter organized crime and corruption and a possible measure to overcome this situation is to strengthen international cooperation. As an illustration of his conclusion, Dr. Shentov referred to some recent cases of effective joint actions undertaken by Bulgarian authorities in cooperation with law enforcement institutions from other countries, including Spain, the U.S., Great Britain, etc.
 Dr. Maria Yordanova, Director of CSD Law Program, commented on the existing flaws in the legislation that in fact impede the effective counteraction of corruption and organized crime. Dr. Yordanova paid special attention on the urgent need to reform Bulgarian judiciary in order to improve its capacity to face the new challenges, including by introducing respective amendments to the Constitution.
At the end of the discussion the participants agreed that achieving the objectives discussed depends on the broad public support in favor of the proposed measures. Such support, as mentioned by Dr. Shentov, could be generated by effectively combining the efforts of the civil society in Bulgaria, the media, and the international community. | |
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