Bulgaria's Interior Minister Calls for Checks into Parties Financing Sofia_News_Agency - 2006/3/21
Bulgaria's Interior Minister Rumen Petkov called for audits into the financing of political parties, foundations and institutes.
During the Eighth Annual Public Political Forum against Corruption, Minister Petkov said that the financing of the political parties, foundations and institutes should be thoroughly probed.
He explained that the Audit Office should execute such checks and that the political parties should file financial reports at the auditing body.
The spread of corruption in Bulgaria, graft practices in the business sector and the role of government institutions in countering it was on top of the agenda of the Eighth Annual Public Political Forum against Corruption, held at the Boyana Residence on Tuesday.
The seventh annual report prepared by the Center for Study of Democracy "Anticorruption Reforms in Bulgaria on the Threshold of EU Membership" was discussed at the forum, attended by the US Ambassador in Sofia John R. Beyrle, Prosecutor General Boris Velchev and Petkov.
The report says 2005 marked a reversal of the positive trend in the decline of corruption since 1998, while still remaining at half the level of seven years ago.
This development suggests that "soft" anti-corruption measures have exhausted their potential and more effective approaches to counteract and prevent corruption must be found, especially at the administrative and political levels.
The report also refers to external risks, which could emerge after Bulgaria's accession to the EU.