Bulgaria Conflict of Interests Violators to Be Penalized

Tatyana Doncheva, (middle), MP from BSP, requested Wednesday that salaries of conflict of interests violators are not garnished because they were compensations for other work, done regardless of the conflict of interests. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency.

Individuals, holding high ranking positions, will incur partial salary garnishment upon proof of conflict of interests.

The amendment of the Conflict of Interests Act was approved Wednesday by the Bulgarian Parliament.

The profits, violators have acquired through conflict of interests, would be confiscated as well.

The initial proposal was to garnish the entire salary, but the Members of the Parliament (MPs) agreed on partial garnishment, while Tatyana Doncheva, from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) requested that salaries are kept intact because they were compensations for other work, done regardless of the conflict of interests.

Public figures will have to declare all contracts they are involved in, not just the consulting ones as it was written in the initial proposal.

Despite objections from the National Movement for Stability and Progress, (NMSP), the MPs agreed to establish a permanent Commission to verify the conflict of interests' declarations. Until now, that task was entrusted to a sub-Commission.

In the mean time, it became clear that a total of 53 MPs failed to submit declarations by the deadline, which expired Tuesday, after being extended earlier by a full month. Among those, who are yet to submit their declarations, are prominent Bulgarian politicians and party leaders, such as the leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the nationalist "Ataka" party, Volen Siderov, and the leader of the "Order, Law and Justice" party, Yane Yanev.

 

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