It is not right and normal, when you remove a director of the ODMVR for failing to do his job, to appoint him to the advisory staff. And the Minister of Interior Daniel Mitov should explain what this gesture means to the system and citizens, said former Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.
In the program "12+3" he commented on the dismissal of the director of the ODMVR Pazardzhik for failing to do his job during the partial local elections in the city and his appointment to the headquarters of the advisors to the Minister of the Interior.
"This happens often, as well as a very strange selection by which employees grow, their professional qualities are ignored at the expense of obedience. And this demotivates the rest and prevents the system from working," said Ivan Demerdzhiev.
According to him, GERB leader Boyko Borisov himself has expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Ministry of Interior is managed.
"I do not believe that it is due to a lack of capacity and Daniel Mitov is hardly the only one", he said.
"As we see, there is no force that can make the majority evaluate the actions of the minister and the professional leadership in order to change the situation", added Demerdzhiev.
In the draft budget for 2026, the Ministry of Interior's is 4.26 billion leva, and in 2025, salary costs alone are 3.8 billion leva.
"The claims to the increased budget come from the feeling that there are no adequate actions to improve work against these remunerations. "There is no approach and system in place to motivate employees to work in the Ministry of Interior," the former Interior Minister believes.
And he predicts that the huge budget of the Ministry of Interior in itself will not have a positive impact:
"It is important to absorb and provide employees with the necessary technical resources to work. There is a lot of money in the budget, but how it will be used is the responsibility of the management and I am worried that it will not be used to its full potential."
According to him, the criticism and reproaches are not directed at the employees, "because they are used to receiving orders, working according to the model created by the management, the debtor here is the political and professional leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs".
Demerdzhiev recommended that the Ministry of Internal Affairs conduct a serious analysis of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - structural and functional:
"Carefully assess the changes so that the work of the employees becomes effective. And to create respect and a sense of security for those in uniform. The big issue is that no one is doing analyses, there is not even such a unit for real analyses. The Directorate of the Service for Control and Information-Analytical Activities (SKIAD) has turned into a filing system – collects data, but no one does an analysis, much less does anyone make a general strategy on how to develop this ministry for the next 30 years. The Ministry of Interior is the largest system."
According to him, the problem with the huge budget for the Ministry of Interior for 2026 is that most of it goes to salaries.
"For many years, real estate costs have not increased, there is a lack of technical support. Now, with a regular government, someone should think about how to provide police officers with modern weapons," commented Dermendzhiev.
And he is categorical that if a police officer does not have the necessary equipment and training and is not technically supported, even if his salary triples, nothing can be expected from him:
"The big problem of the Ministry of Interior is a systematic understaffing - unfilled positions. This starts in Sofia, uniformed police officers are not enough to secure the capital. In my time, there was one patrol per district, I left them with three, but even that is not enough."