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2007 Assessment

Bulgaria: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Bulgaria: Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Civil Service Regulations
Indicators		Score
41	Are there national regulations for the civil service encompassing, at least, the managerial and professional staff?	100
42	Is the law governing the administration and civil service effective?	83
43	Are there regulations addressing conflicts of interest for civil servants?	50
44	Can citizens access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants?	92

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

Are there national regulations for the civil service encompassing, at least, the managerial and professional staff?

41a: In law, there are regulations requiring an impartial, independent and fairly managed civil service.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Civil Servants Law, Art. 2

41b: In law, there are regulations to prevent nepotism, cronyism, and patronage within the civil service.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Civil Servants Law, Art.18, 29

41c: In law, there is an independent redress mechanism for the civil service.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there is a mechanism to which civil servants and applicants for the civil service can take grievances regarding civil service management actions. Civil servants are able to appeal the mechanism\'s decisions to the judiciary. NO: A NO score is earned if no such mechanism exists.$

Comments: Chapter 7 of the law explains in detail how one can appeal decisions before an administrative body and then before the courts.

References: Civil Service Law [ LINK ]

41d: In law, civil servants convicted of corruption are prohibited from future government employment.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Civil Service Law, Arts.7, 103

Peer Review Comments: The prohibition exists only for those who have been convicted by the court and sentenced to prison. This means that if the person is convicted of corruption but is not sentenced to prison, he can enter the service.

Is the law governing the administration and civil service effective?

42a: In practice, civil servants are protected from political interference.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Studies of the Center for Liberal Strategies (Populism in Central and Eastern Europe)

Peer Review Comments: Political appointments (especially at high levels) are still widely recognized, despite the procedure prescribed in the Civil Servants Act and its ordinance, which grant impartiality to the service.

42b: In practice, civil servants are appointed and evaluated according to professional criteria.

Score:

100

Comments: The influence of political patronage is gradually being reduced in Bulgaria due to regulations of the administration and privatization. Yet, it has by no means disappeared, and there are regular reports of certain malpractices in the media.

References: CLS projects (Populism in Central and Eastern Europe)

CSD reports

Peer Review Comments: This principle does not apply to the majority of high-ranking civil service appointments.

42c: In practice, civil service management actions (e.g. hiring, firing, promotions) are not based on nepotism, cronyism, or patronage.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Smilov and Toplak (eds.) Political Finance and Corruption in Eastern Europe, Ashgate, 2007

Peer Review Comments: The process exists mainly at the top level, while at the lower level of the service, it is not that widely seen.

42d: In practice, civil servants have clear job descriptions.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Civil servants almost always have formal job descriptions establishing levels of seniority, assigned functions, and compensation. Job descriptions are a reliable means to map positions to both human capital requirements (including the position\'s authority and responsibilities) and base pay. 50 Score Criteria: Civil servants often have formal job descriptions, but exceptions exist. Some civil servants may not be part of the formal assignment of duties and compensations. Some job descriptions may not map clearly to pay or responsibilities in some cases. 0 Score Criteria: Civil servants do not have formal roles or job descriptions. If they do, such job descriptions have little or nothing to do with the position\'s responsibilities, authority, or pay.$

Comments: Most of the public authorities follow minutely regulated procedures, described in the Rules of Organization.

References: The Rules of Organization of Customs, [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: Recently, one of the Bulgarian TV stations aired a report about civil servants who do something other than their job descriptions. There are other occasional cases--mainly in small regional institutions where the appointment of some civil servants is formal act--where workers do not work the job for which they were appointed.

Peer Review Comments: All civil servants have a clearly defined job description, which is given to each civil servant before he enters office.

42e: In practice, civil servant bonuses constitute only a small faction of total pay.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: Civil servant bonuses constitute no more than 10% of total pay and do not represent a major element of take-home pay. 50 Score Criteria: Civil servant bonuses are generally a small percentage of total take-home pay for most civil servants though exceptions exist where some civil servants\' bonuses represent a significant part of total pay. 0 Score Criteria: Most civil servants receive bonuses that represent a significant amount of total take-home pay. In some cases bonuses represent the majority of total pay to civil servants.$

Comments:

References: Law on the Public Service, Arts. 32-48, [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: Bonuses are bound to the work-assessment procedure that takes place every year. Higher-graded officials may get up to a 10% increase of the salary. Although this is the basic principle, in some administrations exist additional bonus schemes that may bring substantial increase of the salary (even double it). Such examples exist in the Ministry of Finance, the Registry Agency, etc. It should be noted that these cases are exceptions rather than a widespread practice.

42f: In practice, the government publishes the number of authorized civil service positions along with the number of positions actually filled.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Civil Service Law, Art. 60

The Ministry of Public Administration has a very well maintained website, where information about competitions is regularly published. See [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: There is no information about how many of these positions were assigned after transparent and honest competition. Also, there is no information about the amount of actual announced positions.

Peer Review Comments: All the information is published in the Civil Service Register, available online.

42g: In practice, the independent redress mechanism for the civil service is effective.

Score:

100

Comments: According to the second source the general impression of public administration experts is that, as a whole, the mechanism is efficient. In practice, though, sometimes court proceedings take a long time.

References: There have been no independent studies on the issue.

Interview with Antoinette Primatarova, former chief negotiator on behalf of Bulgaria with the EU

Peer Review Comments: The court proceedings take a long time, which means that the mechanism is not effective enough.

42h: In practice, in the past year, the government has paid civil servants on time.

Score:

100

Comments: This has not been a problem in Bulgaria for more than ten years.

References: There are no reports of delayed payments.

42i: In practice, civil servants convicted of corruption are prohibited from future government employment.

Score:

100

Comments: There are no cases in which persons convicted of corruption have been reappointed to the public administration. There have been cases of reappointment of persons accused of corruption who have not been convicted.

References: There are no cases in which persons convicted of corruption have been reappointed to the public administration. There have been cases of reappointment of persons accused of corruption who have not been convicted.

Peer Review Comments: There is no information available on this. There have been cases of reappointment of persons accused of corruption but never convicted. This means that the level of the public intolerance for eventual precedents still tends not to be very high.

Peer Review Comments: There are no statistics on whether civil servants convicted of corruption have entered office again. Usually, there is not enough evidence for conviction. Most of the accused enter the civil service again, thus damaging its integrity.

Are there regulations addressing conflicts of interest for civil servants?

43a: In law, there are requirements for civil servants to recuse themselves from policy decisions where their personal interests may be affected.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Civil Service Law, Art. 29

43b: In law, there are restrictions for civil servants entering the private sector after leaving the government.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there are regulations restricting civil servants\' ability to take positions in the private sector after leaving government that would present a conflict of interest, including positions that directly seek to influence their former government colleagues. NO: A NO score is earned if no such restrictions exist.$

Comments:

References: There are no such restrictions.

43c: In law, there are regulations governing gifts and hospitality offered to civil servants.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Civil Service Law

Codes of Conduct of different services

43d: In practice, the regulations restricting post-government private sector employment for civil servants are effective.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: There are no such restrictions.

43e: In practice, the regulations governing gifts and hospitality offered to civil servants are effective.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Interviews with Rumyana Kolarova , Ph.D, August 2007

Peer Review Comments: There is no way to confirm the opposite.

Peer Review Comments: No, there are no efficient regulations or control over this process.

43f: In practice, the requirements for civil service recusal from policy decisions affecting personal interests are effective.

Score:

100

Comments: Interviews suggest that problems in this area still exist.

References: There are no independent studies on this question.

Interviews with Rumyana Kolarova and Milena Stefanova , experts on public administration, October 2007

Peer Review Comments: Though there are some bad examples, the tendency is positive.

Can citizens access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants?

44a: In law, citizens can access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-Ranking State Officials, Article 2 ([ LINK ])

Peer Review Comments: No obstacles exist to trying to get this information under a Freedom of Information Act request. However the outcome is not guaranteed.

The declaration of assets of about 5,000 civil servants in higher-level positions are available online on the Web site of the National Audit Office after searching by name at [ LINK ].

Peer Review Comments: The declarations are usually kept in the internal Inspectorates and are reviewed in cases when a suspicion or signal of conflict of interest occurs. The declaration of some categories of high-ranking officials are public, according to the High-Ranking State Officials Personal Assets Disclosure Act. Most categories dont fall under the definition of public servants under the Public Service Act, however, and are considered political appointees.

Peer Review Comments: According to the law, all heads and deputy heads of government agencies and services are required to file asset disclosure forms. Records are available to citizens. See: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-Ranking State Officials, Article 2 [ LINK ]

44b: In practice, citizens can access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-Ranking State Officials, Article 6 ([ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: These asset-disclosure records are available immediately online at [ LINK ].

Peer Review Comments: In law, records should be available on-line but they are not available yet. However, they can be obtained within a week. See: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-Ranking State Officials, Article 6 [ LINK ]/files/_bg/ZpubImust050906_010107new.doc" target="_blank">[ LINK ];

Web Site of the National Audit Office: http://www.bulnao.government.bg

44c: In practice, citizens can access the asset disclosure records of senior civil servants at a reasonable cost.

Score:

100

Comments:

References: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-Ranking State Officials, Article 6 ([ LINK ]/files/_bg/ZpubImust050906_010107new.doc" target="_blank">[ LINK ]); Web site of the National Audit Office: http://www.bulnao.government.bg

Peer Review Comments: No fee exists for these records, which are online. For records that are not online and would need to be requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the fees applicable under the FOIA apply.

Peer Review Comments: In law, records should be available on-line but they are not available yet. However, they can be obtained at a reasonable cost. See: Law on Public Disclosure of Assets of High-Ranking State Officials, Article 6 [ LINK ]/files/_bg/ZpubImust050906_010107new.doc" target="_blank">[ LINK ];

Web Site of the National Audit Office: http://www.bulnao.government.bg