Bulgaria Parliament Adopts Lenient Conflict of Interest Act Amendments

The Bulgarian Parliament voted on first read Thursday the new amendments in the Conflict of Interest Act. Phoot by Sofia Photo Agency.

The amendments in the Conflict of Interest Act were adopted at the first read by the Bulgarian Parliament Thursday.

The changes in the procedure of establishing and avoiding conflict of interests were submitted by Tatyana Doncheva, Member of Parliament (MP) for the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and a group of several others MPs.

The changes provide that when a person at a high ranking position is proven to have a conflict of interests, his salary would not be seized by the State for the benefit of the State budget.

According to the amendments adopted Thursday, conflict of interests must be declared only by State and municipal employees who have leadership and controlling positions. The text stating that an individual, who submits a conflict of interests declaration with false information would be subject to legal penalty, was deleted from the Conflict of Interests Act.

The amendments were introduced on the heels of last month's Parliamentary decision to extend the deadline for submitting conflict of interest declarations until the end of March, which became an obstacle for the Act's timely implementation.

 

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