At his opening remarks the Minister of Interior Mr. Mihail Mikov stated that the policy of the Ministry is policy of zero tolerance for all kind of corruption practices.

 

Mr. Stafan Kuzarov, Head of Directorate Countering Corruption at the Ministry of Interior presented the institutional measures for control and prevention of corruption in the Ministry. He underlined that an important factor for the improvement of the social climate and building up intolerance to the corruption is the search for and adopting of new, more effective means for exchange of information, coordination and collaboration among all relevant institutions at national and international level.

 

During the discussion Mr. Chavdar Chervenkov, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy pointed out that this initiative should not remain a single event because the NGO sector has an important role in countering corruption. He proposed a coordinator of the initiative from the Ministry of Interior to be elected. The coordinator will be responsible for the future joint actions and collaboration among the participants. Mr. Tihomir Bezlov, Senior Analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy added that the main prerequisites for efficient collaboration between the Ministry of Interior and the NGO sector are the increased transparency of the work of the institution and the active engagement of NGOs in the preparation and implementation of the Ministry’s anticorruption initiatives.

 

During the event the Inspectorate Directorate at the Ministry of Interior and six Bulgarian NGOs signed a declaration for collaboration. With this declaration the Inspectorate, the Center for the Study of Democracy, Officers and Sergeants from the Reserve Union, Transparency International, Open Society, Media Development Center and Association Journalists Against Corruption stated their willingness to implement joint actions and initiatives for effective and efficient prevention and countering of corruption in all its forms.