site.btaCabinet Approves Draft of New Counter-Corruption Act

The Council of Ministers on Thursday approved a draft Act on Tackling Corruption of Public Office Holders, the Government Information Service said in a press release.

The new bill has been drafted implementing the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and the recommendations of the European Commission which has so far blocked the disbursement of the second and third payment under the NRRP, totalling EUR 258,228,948, owing to an unsatisfactory implementation of the anti-corruption reform.

The bill envisages the establishment of a five-member Anti-Corruption Commission, with one of its members being elected by the National Assembly, one being appointed by the President of the Republic, one each being elected by the general assemblies of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court, and one being elected by the Supreme Bar Council. The Commission is to serve a single five-year term in office, and its members will rotate annually as chairperson. Once every six months, the Commission will account for its performance before Parliament and will also present an annual activity report.   

The bill defines 52 categories of public office holders within its scope, including the president and the vice president of the Republic, the MPs, the government ministers, the Constitutional Court members, senior office holders in the judiciary, the Bulgarian MEPs and European Commissioners.

The Commission will be active in several areas: corruption prevention (by gathering and analysing information, developing and proposing anti-corruption measures), detecting and investigating corruption offences (including embezzlement, wilful mismanagement, conclusion of unprofitable transaction, malfeasance in office, bribery, trading in influence, and money laundering). Next, the Commissioning will be verifying the public officer holders' declarations of assets and interests and ascertain conflicts of interest of public office holders.

The Commission authorities will be vested with operational detection and investigation powers. Operational detection will be performed by expressly appointed officers when information is received about a corruption offence committed by public office holders, where a lack of correspondence is established between assets as declared and as actually held, etc. Investigation will be performed by investigating inspectors of a status similar to investigating police officers and investigating customs inspectors. Their investigating activities will conform to the terms and procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code. 

The Anti-Corruption Commission will be competent to lodge appeals before the court against a prosecutor's refusal to institute pre-trial proceedings. Judicial review of the termination and stay of pre-trial proceedings investigated by Commission employees will be mandatory.

The bill further regulates the consequences of the constituting of the Commission and the transfer of anti-corruption functions to it from the Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO).

On January 28, 2026, the National Assembly passed conclusively revisions to the National Audit Office Act, which abolished the pre-existing Anti-Corruption Commission and transferred its functions to the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and the BNAO.