Anti-corruption Pressure Group
ACCESS
has started this project implementation in May 2001. As a first step of its
implementation a Anti-corruption Pressure Group was established including
prominent Bulgarian journalists, lawyers, media experts and human rights
activists: Roumyana Chervenkova, Yassen Boyadjiev, Yonko Grozev, Valery
Roussanov, Associate Professor Vessela
Tabakova, Yovo
Nikolov and Evgeny Todorov (he has joined
the Group since 2003).
The
purpose of the project is to strengthen the Pressure Group in its mediation
between the media and NGOs, on the one hand, and the competent state
institutions, on the other.
The main goal of the Group is to refer to the
prosecuting magistracy cases of committed offences of corruption, reported in
the Bulgarian press and electronic media, which contain enough evidence of
corruption as defined in Article 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and on
the grounds of Article 187 (1.2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and provide
lawful grounds for instituting preliminary proceedings. The Group does formal
notification (through written enquiries, memoranda, etc.) of the prosecution,
the Special Investigations Service, the National Service for Combating
Organized Crime and the Parliamentary Committee against Crime and Corruption
(known as the "Anti-Mafia" Committee) as a collective body.
The cases referred by the Group to the prosecuting
magistracy are selected by a monthly media monitoring. At the meetings, when
analyzing and assessing the monitoring results the Group is helped
by a legal expert.
The Group
meets regularly and follows its own agenda defining the problems
and priorities on consensual basis. The Project coordinator, chairing the Group
is responsible for the consensual model of working. He also observes that the
Group follows closely the target areas, established under its experience as
most sensitive in terms of corruption practices and public value of cases.
(State Administration; Public Health; Public Procurement Act; Abuse of Power;
Education; Economy; Privatization; Judicial System; Sports, Media; Customs;
Local Government; Parliament; Police; Army; Concession Contracts; Others.)
A summary of the
Anti-Corruption Group’s activities includes:
§
Content analysis and assessment of the findings of the
ongoing media monitoring;
§
Selection of cases to be further investigated, evaluated
and brought to the attention of the prosecution;
§
Further
expert investigation of cases aimed at gathering data, information, facts,
links and expertise on possible and legal action;
§
Formal notification (through written enquiries, memoranda,
etc.) of the prosecution, the Special Investigations Service, the National
Service for Combating Organized Crime and the Parliamentary Committee against
Crime and Corruption (known as the "Anti-Mafia" Committee);
§
Monitoring of ongoing preliminary investigations conducted
by the Prosecutor's Office and the courts;
The project results are announced at conferences and through publications in the print media. ̉he concrete work and achieved results of the Group are also available in the Reports Menu, The project provides for a Final Report as well.
At
the turn of the year 2003 ACCESS started the implementation of a new anti-corruption
project with the
purpose to further develop the unique anti-corruption experience
accumulated by the Pressure Group. It received funding from DPK Consulting within USAID’s “Open Government Initiative” project. The main
goal of this project
was to develop a new scheme
