site.btaPM Zhelyazkov Gives 10-Day Deadline to Improve BG-ALERT Early Warning System

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has given a 10-day deadline to improve the BG-ALERT early warning system. "Ten days, colleagues, and after that – no excuses," Zhelyazkov ordered at the start of the regular government meeting on Wednesday.

"In recent days, the topic of how the BG-ALERT system is activated and functions has sparked serious debate. Once again, we are seeing that systems built with public funds fail to operate when the time, place, and occasion demand it, due to certain institutional or other considerations," the Prime Minister stressed.

Zhelyazkov is giving a 10-day deadline to the ministries of interior, economy, e-governance, agriculture, and energy, as well as the National Association of Municipalities in Republic of Bulgaria, the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, and the Hail Suppression Agency, to present a plan, and, if necessary, propose changes to the BG-ALERT regulation so that the system, which he described as built, functional, and good, starts operating effectively.

Zhelyazkov emphasized that governance is a synthesis of information sharing and integrated systems: no system can be feudalized, with each institution guarding its own information. Nor is it acceptable, he said, that for a completed system it turns out no designated personnel were trained to operate it. According to the Prime Minister, this cannot be used as an excuse – neither by mayors, nor by regional governors, nor by those responsible for the system’s operation.