A study by the Institute for Market Economy shows that Bulgaria ranks first in terms of GDP in the entire European Union in terms of justice spending, far above the other member states. There is a possibility that this trend can change and this is entirely in the hands of the National Assembly. This was said by the legal expert at the Institute for Market Economy Ivan Bregov in the program “Bulgaria, Europe and the World in Focus“ on Radio “Focus“.
In terms of satisfaction with justice and in terms of fighting corruption, Bulgaria ranks between Kosovo and Senegal, and in terms of justice spending we are first in the European Union. “You pay a lot and well, and there is no result from this. I am not convinced that this is the model under which the Bulgarian judiciary can exist. Levers should be sought, mainly related to the budget and the reformatting of the judicial map of the country, so that there are no courts – "sacred cows" that exist at any cost, and no structures of the prosecutor's office that are subordinated solely to the will of the Prosecutor General. In some prosecutor's offices, in addition to ordinary prosecutors who are engaged in their professional activities, the administrative structures are overgrown with four, five, or even six deputies. Is it necessary for the Prosecutor General to have a very specific budget for representational expenses, which is not visible in what direction it is spent and whether this is not related to the personal ambitions and goals of the temporarily acting Prosecutor General?“, asked Bregov.
According to him, 93% of the judiciary's budget goes to payments for remuneration and bonuses to judges, prosecutors and investigators. "We have a model in which only 7% is spent on capital expenditures and other expenses of the judiciary, the rest is for personnel. Salaries increase every year and this is enshrined in the Judiciary Act", explained Ivan Bregov.
Therefore, one of the measures to stop spending in the judiciary, which legal experts at the Institute for Market Economy propose, is a complete freeze on competitions and a suspension of appointments in the system. Another measure is the cancellation of the model of indexation of salaries in the judiciary.
"The price of the work done must be determined according to workload and quality and it must be determined what it will be for certain categories of cases. If this is linked to the workload norm that the SJC has developed for judges and prosecutors, it can give a good result. This will be a job that the SJC must do. In the longer term, objective criteria should be set, such as workload and location, which would indicate where and how many people are needed, and this should be revised over a certain period of time,“ explained Bregov.
The second option is more restrictive. "Justice costs are a certain percentage of the country's GDP. If GDP falls, justice costs also fall. Then the SJC of the self-governing judiciary will have to decide whether it needs over 2,200 judges and over 1,500 prosecutors and investigators, 22 members of the SJC, 120 people in the administration of the SJC and 120 people in the administration of the Inspectorate to the SJC and to assess how to reward them, according to the percentage of the income it receives from the country's GDP“, commented the expert from IME.
The third model is the historical budgeting model. "It led to the fact that in 10 years – from 2015 to 2024, the budget of the judiciary doubled – from 680 million to 1.3 billion leva. If justice does not contribute to welfare and economic growth, then there is no need for it to be generously rewarded. Let it be self-governing. Of the 1.3 billion leva, these 5,000 people in the system will have 800 million at their disposal," Ivan Bregov pointed out.