Lena Borislavova: We insist on opening a new procedure for selecting the leadership of the CPC

We submitted a draft resolution today, with which we insist on the procedure for selecting new heads of the anti-corruption commission, to terminate the current one and open a new one, which this time will proceed without violating the rules of transparency and guarantees for political independence of the proposed leadership. This was stated by the MP from “We continue the change“ (PP) Lena Borislavova to journalists in the National Assembly, a reporter for Novini.bg reported.
Specifically, the problems in connection with the current procedure are three groups. First of all, this procedure took place under extremely and deliberately shortened deadlines, namely 12 days. The rules themselves, which the ruling majority voted on, set such short deadlines for the procedure that the Supreme Bar Council could not comply with its own law on the bar and nominate its representative as a member of the commission. The second category of problems is related to the fact that the activities of the nomination commission took place in August, when public and media attention was reduced due to the active summer vacation season, and the parliamentary commission that controls the composition of the nomination commission refused to meet, despite our signals of addictions. Thirdly, we see that the candidates who appeared for this procedure did not propose a way to improve the work of the anti-corruption body. On every page of their concept, they talk about upgrading the activity, preserving current practices and do not recognize any problems in the functioning of the anti-corruption commission, she explained.

For two of the candidates – Mr. Petkov and Koev, this is normal, since they are currently the heads of the anti-corruption unit in the anti-corruption commission, that is, they are the ones for whom there is evidence that they are carrying out political orders and pressuring witnesses to testify falsely. We have such data in at least three cases in recent months, while these two candidates are heads of the anti-corruption commission, Borislavova said.
She specified that this is the case against the deputy mayor of Sofia Municipality Nikola Barbutov, where one of the witnesses publicly said that he was pressured to testify falsely and because she refused to do so, Ms. Sonya Yankulova was brought in as a defendant. In the case against Blago Kotsev, we also have a witness who withdrew his testimony because he was pressured by the inspectors in the Anti-Corruption Commission to give false testimony, and in the case of Desislava Ivancheva, where Mr. Slavchev is again involved, we again have data going back in time about pressure being exerted. And these people have now been proposed to become the new heads of the Anti-Corruption Commission. Therefore, we at the PP believe that with such personnel, with such a flawed procedure, we will not have a choice that will lead to improved work and a real investigation in the fight against corruption, but quite the opposite.

For this reason, we believe that the opening of a new procedure is necessary to guarantee payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, because these problems, under this current procedure, will hardly be ignored by the EC and our partners, who will not turn a blind eye, believes Borislavova.