site.btaNational Audit Office Chair Reports to OSCE Mission on New Responsibilities Assigned to Institution

The new responsibilities assigned to the Bulgarian National Audit Office in connection with the closure of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the transfer of a significant part of its activities to the audit institution demonstrate a high level of trust in it, National Audit Office Chair Dimitar Glavchev said at a meeting with representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the audit institution announced on Tuesday. The National Audit Office is already in the process of structurally and organizationally integrating these new duties into its operations, Glavchev added.

A mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is in Bulgaria in connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Attending the meeting were National Audit Office Deputy Chair Margarita Nikolova and Specific Audits Directorate head Ekaterina Percheva.

The National Audit Office is making every effort to ensure the necessary publicity and transparency of election participants’ financing, both during election campaigns and after their conclusion, by deploying substantial human resources and reviewing a vast amount of information, Glavchev explained.

Within its statutory powers, the institution seeks to ensure maximum transparency in several ways: by publishing information during the campaign itself in the Unified Register under the Election Code, including details on donors and donations; by publishing the financial reports of election participants after the campaign has ended; and finally, through audits verifying the declared revenues and incurred expenditures of election participants.

In addition to its responsibilities under the Election Code, the National Audit Office also has duties under the Political Parties Act, under which it annually reviews the financial statements of political parties and the assets provided to them. However, the institution also has mechanisms to detect irregularities related to the improper use of municipal and regional property by political entities through other types of audits, including financial audits and compliance audits, Glavchev added.

The audit reports on the compliance of declared revenues and campaign expenditures are also public and available for anyone to review, as are the audit reports prepared under the Political Parties Act.

At the end of January, Parliament adopted at second reading the amendments to the National Audit Office Act, providing for the closure of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the transfer of its functions to the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GDCOC) at the Ministry of Interior and the National Audit Office.

Activities related to corruption prevention, the identification of conflicts of interest, and the establishment of discrepancies in the declared assets of persons holding public office were transferred to the National Audit Office, which became the legal successor to the administrative structures of the Anti-Corruption Commission performing these functions.