Since its inauguration in April 1998, the Center for
the Study of Democracy (CSD) has acted as Secretariat to the
process of Coalition 2000 (www.online. bg/coalition2000), a
public-private initiative against corruption in Bulgaria. In
addition to providing operational support and coordination, CSD
also contributes substantively to the implementation of the various
pillars of the Coalition process - policy, monitoring and
awareness. Below is a summary of the main highlights of the
Coalition's work in 2000 and CSD's role.
I. A Public-Private Partnership
The third year of the activity of Coalition 2000 was
marked by broadening the scope of the anticorruption efforts in
conformity with the main guidelines laid down in the Anticorruption
Action Plan adopted in 1998. What was common about them was the
reinforcement and clearer definition of the parameters of the
public-private partnership in counteracting corruption. A
novelty at the time the Coalition was initiated; public-private
cooperation is now applied in various national and international
anticorruption programs.
Developing partnerships and coalition building are
of crucial importance for the success of any anticorruption
campaign for the reason that corrupt practices permeate all spheres
and activities in the post-communist societies. The experience of
the Coalition in Bulgaria shows that the complementarity of the
roles, instruments and specific goals of the different social
sectors represent not only an argument in favor of a broader
coalition, but also emphasize the importance of their relative
autonomy. As far as civil society is concerned, its anticorruption
tools correspond to two basic functions of the NGO sector:
independent monitoring and exerting civic control through different
forms of advocacy and facilitation.
The development of the partnership with
representatives of public institutions would not have been possible
without the sustained cooperation at expert level. A process
of continuous consultations in round tables, seminars and working
meetings among experts from civic and government institutions
ensures that anticorruption reform efforts are coordinated before
they reach the policy level. In the framework of this cooperation
some new important areas of anticorruption interest have emerged
during the year. An example of successful cooperation was the work
of the Expert Group on Corruption and Illegal Trafficking,
which, along with experts from non-governmental organizations, also
involved representatives of the Customs Agency, the Special
Investigative Service, and other government agencies. The brochure
entitled Corruption and Illegal Trafficking:Monitoring and
Prevention was an outcome of this activity and shortly went
through a second edition.
Published initially in 2000 copies in English and
Bulgarian, the brochure was discussed at various workshops,
including representatives of the diplomatic community. As a result,
a second, updated and revised edition was published at the time of
the meeting of the Working Table III of the Stability Pact in Sofia
on October 4-5. Distributed during the event, the publication
generated considerable interest from various international
organizations and regional initiatives.
Public-private cooperation has also been crucial in
terms of legislative and institutional reform in the work of the
Coalition. In 2000, Coalition 2000 experts under the leadership of
the CSD Law Program completed the draft law on the parliamentary
ombudsman and local civic mediators and assisted its introduction
to the National Assembly. In the framework of Coalition 2000, CSD
organized a series of discussions, seminars, and conferences with
international participation with the purpose of studying foreign
experience in this area, as well as the implications of its
introduction into the Bulgarian practice (for more information
please refer to the Law Program section of this report).
The model of public-private partnership was largely
reproduced within the framework of the local anticorruption
structures. Expanding the work of the Coalition beyond the capital
city to include municipal level activities was one of the main
achievements of the Coalition in 2000. Through the Small Grants
Program of Coalition 2000, administered by CSD, a number of local
anticorruption organizations of a coalition type were created
throughout the country. They included representatives of the
Coalition 2000 partner NGOs, as well as heads of district and
municipal agencies, journalists, legal experts. In towns such as
Shumen, Varna, and Smolyan, the activity of civic -mediators, first
launched in 1999, acquired a more institutionalized character with
the signing of cooperation memorandums between the representatives
of local non-governmental organizations and the mayors of the
municipalities.
Another landmark of the cooperation with government
institutions - both at expert and policy level - was again the
development of the annual Corruption Assessment Report (CAR).
Drafted and discussed by experts, it was endorsed by the Policy
Forum of the Coalition and then published both in English and
Bulgarian. CAR presents a general evaluation of the state and
dynamics of cor-" ruption in Bulgarian society and the efforts to
counteract this phenomenon in 2000. The CAR analyzes the changes,
which have occurred in various public spheres and which have
brought (or might bring about) changes in corruption dynamics. The
CAR was presented to the Third Policy Forum of Coalition 2000 held
on December 1 at the Boyana Conference Center in Sofia.
In 2000, the Corruption Assessment Report emphasized
the need for further anticorruption measures in areas as funding
of political parties, the judiciary, post-privatization control and
corporate governance, the link between corruption and
smuggling, and overcoming an institutional "bias" towards
the executive branch in the international anticorruption
cooperation.
II. A Watchdog and Public Awareness Tool
Throughout the year. Coalition 2000 continued to
implement a number of activities within the framework of its
Clean Future public awareness campaign. The central and
regional/local press, as well as the broadcasts with their
participation on the national and local electronic media, were
marked by high professionalism and greater focus on specific
anticorruption priority areas. Coalition 2000 experts were also
instrumental in initiating the anticorruption media campaign in the
spring of 2000, when "corruption at the top" became the number one
issue in public debate. Largely under the influence of this public
pressure on government, the adoption of certain laws with an
anticorruption effect, among which the Law on the Public Register
and the Law on the Access to Public Information, was speeded
up.
A number of local initiatives included
awareness-raising events (information days, public discussions,
press conferences, etc.) intended to popularize the concept of
civic control and monitoring of local government as an essential
part of the efforts to foster greater public intolerance to corrupt
practices. The involvement in the anticorruption initiatives of
representatives of local government, of the non-governmental
sector, as well as of reporters and local and regional media
executives, was also of great importance.
The greatest awareness-raising effect was
unquestionably produced by the regularly published Corruption
Monitoring Indexes of Coalition 2000. As the main product of
the Corruption Monitoring System (CMS) developed and implemented by
Vitosha Research, they have become an effective instrument for the
analysis of corrupt practices in this country and the assessment of
the progress made by the anticorruption initiatives.
One of the highlights in the monitoring work of the
Coalition in 2000 was the application of its method on a regional
scale. CSD, through its agency Vitosha Research, conducted a
comparative study of corruption in Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia
in January 2000. It was prepared in cooperation among the Center
for the Study of Democracy, the Center for Economic Studies,
Albania, and Forum - Center for Strategic Studies, Macedonia. The
study is based on the CMS of Coalition 2000, developed by Vitosha
Research, and marks the start of the introduction of a Regional
Corruption Monitoring System. The importance of the comparative
analysis is determined both by the obtained empirical data about
public ideas and attitudes, and the anticorruption strategies (for
further details see Vitosha Research section of this report).
A new highlight in the work of the Coalition during
the year 2000 was the focus on educational aspects of public
awareness. In this respect, the publication of anticorruption
readers series continued with three new titles including The Fight
Against Violations and Malpractice in Public Administration,
Judicial Power and Corruption, and Counteracting Corruption in
Local Government. Another title. Information Technologies against
Corruption, developed by the Applied Research and Communications
Fund, is under preparation and will be published in 2001.
Further, addressing the need to provide the
Bulgarian education system with adequate anticorruption tools
experts with Coalition 2000 developed an Anti-corruption
Educational Manual. Based on it, an experimental course on
corruption and anticorruption policies was started as part of the
curriculum of New Bulgarian University. Cooperation agreements were
also made with several educational establishments, including the
University of National and World Economy, the Higher Police
Academy, and others. Further, the reference book Corruption in a
100 Answers, published by the CiviLink Foundation within Coalition
2000, will be another useful instrument for the popularization of
modern standards in counteracting corruption in Bulgaria.
III. International Cooperation
Maintaining regular contacts with the international
community is one of the main tasks of CSD as Secretariat to the
Coalition. International cooperation is crucial to the work of the
Coalition in Bulgaria both in terms of use of technical assistance
and expertise in the various activities as well as the introduction
to Bulgaria of best international practices.
In this respect, the year 2000 was marked by a
positive evolution towards expanded regional cooperation through
the popularization of the experience from public-private
cooperation within the non-governmental sector in a number of
transition countries.
The principal international event of the Coalition
in the year 2000 was The Southeast Europe Anticorruption Forum,
held in Sofia on February 23-24 with the participation of about 70
representatives of non-governmental organizations from the region,
experts and representatives of the USAID, the Council of_ Europe,
the OECD, Transparency International, the US State Department, the
U.K. Department for International Development and other
international organizations, as well as representatives of
Bulgarian state institutions. The countries represented at the
Forum included Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova, Slovakia,
Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary.
The Coalition experience was also discussed within
two Bulgarian-Ukrainian events: the visit to Bulgaria of
representatives of Ukrainian NGOs, USAID and Freedom House-Kiev
which took place on April 24-30, as well as the anticor-ruption
conference in Kiev on October 20-21, in which two Coalition 2000
experts took part as lecturers.
As an acknowledgement of the pioneering contribution
Coalition 2000 has made to the fight against corruption in
transition countries, presentation of its experience has been
included in many international forums in 2000. Among those, the
OECD Forum 2000 (www.oecd.org/forum2000) held on May 9-10 in Paris,
stands out.
Building on the work done by the Coalition, the
International Development Law Institute and the Center for the
Study of Democracy initiated the Southeast European Legal
Development Initiative (SELDI). In 2000, SELDI started work on
its anticorruption component which benefits to a large extent from
CSD work as Secretariat of Coalition 2000 in terms of focusing on
public-private cooperation and monitoring (for more details see the
section of the European Program of this report).
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