Bulgarian Judiciary Lacks Money for Special Tribunals

According to the Bulgarian Supreme Judicial Council, there is notenough money in the 2011 budget for judiciary for the creation of the specialized tribunals. Photo by BGNES

The budget of the Bulgarian judiciary cannot provide enough funding for the new specialized courts and prosecution offices, the Supreme Judicial Council (VSS) announced Wednesday.

Bulgaria has promised the European Commission that the special anti-mafia tribunal has to start operating in May 2011. However, the Bulgarian Parliament has not yet adopted at second reading the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, which will define the exact cases that would be tried there.

The Chair of the VSS Budget Committee, Ivan Kolev, stated that the fact that the amendments have not been adopted yet is preventing the estimation of the amount needed for the creation of the special tribunals against mafia bosses and high-level corruption.

Rough estimations have shown that about 40 magistrates will work at the two tribunals and the two prosecutor's offices.

"Altogether, the employees will be about 200 people. About BGN 8 M will be needed for their salaries," Kolev said.

He has explained that this will not be the total cost because the locations of the tribunals have to be defined, in order to estimate the cost of the equipment of the courtroom. Money for supplies and vehicles also need to be provided.

According to unofficial information, the tribunals will be located in the old building of the State Agency for National Security.

The 2011 budget for judiciary was the same as for last year – BGN 387 M.

"When we divided the amount to 12 months, we established that the state funding will be enough for salaries only and if no new employees are hired. The money will cover also electricity, water, phone bills, and paper, but they will all finish by the end of September," Kolev said.

He has announced that VSS will propose to Bulgaria's Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, to cut the expenses for the state company "Information Services" for issuing certificates for current standing of companies that are re-registering.

The certificates are free of charge for citizens, but the judiciary pays BGN 15 each to "Information Services".

VSS will propose that the certificate is paid by the companies that want to undergo re-registration. However, this would require changing the Bulgarian Commercial Register Act.

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