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Regional Social Security – Razgrad
Respects the Law Only As Last Resort

After a judgment against the regional office of the National Social Security Institute under the APIA, the office was punished by the Commission for Prevention and Establishment of Conflict of Interests

Stela Kovacheva

The Nongovernmental Organizations Center in Razgrad
http://www.ngo-rz.org/

Since 1997, the NGO Center in Razgrad has been advocating for civil participation and development of democratic processes on a local level.

The NGOs Centre in Razgrad develops and implements pilot projects in support of the development of the judicial system since 2004. The NGOs Centre has implemented eight projects related to civil monitoring and support to the judicial reform in Bulgaria. During the last years, the organization has been developing its capacity as civil monitor of the institutions in Razgrad and in the district.
The NGOs Center main activities are in the areas of strengthening democratic institutions, of ethnic minorities, vulnerable groups, social services and civil rights.

The NGOs Centre has developed 10 years of cooperation work with the court (www.watch.ngo-rz.org) and with the police (http://www.police.ngo-rz.org/). It is among the founders and initiators for the establishment of a national NGO network for civil court watch in 2007, with current membership of 65 NGOs. The NGOs Center has initiated a Consultation center on the issues of domestic violence.

When someone does not want to comply with the requirements for openness and transparency, not so respected at home but mandatory for the public administration, gets into a trap on their own.

The head of the Regional Office of the National Social Security Institute Veselin Nikolov is on the way of becoming an official who is playing with the devil without realizing that such games can hardly remain secret behind the walls of the public body.

In 2009, when construction workers built a scaffolding at the building of the Regional Social Security Office in Razgrad in order to rig up a glass elevator, a local nongovernmental organization requested the head of the institution who had ordered the construction, who was the contracted company for the procurement, how much did it cost, and why was the execution of such a procurement necessary.

The requesting Center of Nongovernmental Organizations in Razgrad (recipient of a 2007 “Golden Key” Award from AIP) explained that instead of paying for an expensive elevator to lift the people with disabilities to the social services settled on the fourth floor, the offices working with sick and handicapped people could be moved on the ground floor.

It is not clear if the requested head of the public body Nikolov had understood the question and the meaning of the explanatory part. Because he did not respond to the APIA request neither in the prescribed two-weeks period, nor later. And the nongovernmental organization had to litigate the Regional Social Security Office in Razgrad in order to finally learn who, why, and at what cost built the luxurious elevator, looking like a patch on the grey façade, lifting people who are waiting for pennies from the state as a compensation for age or sickness. 

The story with the ignored questions and forced answers obviously had not frustrated the head of the administrative structure. In the summer of the same 2009, in his capacity of head of the Regional Social Security Office, Nikolov appointed his sister Liliya Vodenicharova as a head of sector “Pensions” in the same institution.

At first sight, there are not violations in the appointment. The sister has been working with his brother since 1990 since he has been a head of the social security services in the city. At the distribution of the bonuses to the salaries, however, Nikolov has applied the infamous at that time formula “from brother to brother.” And so, without declaring conflict of interests as required by the just enforced law, Vesko Nikolov signed the payroll with the bonuses of the official a higher amount than the others against the name of his sister Lilya. In March and April 2010, she received 190 BGN in bonuses, while the other officials – 153 BGN. In May and June, she received 157, while the others 108 BGN. This practice continued till August 2011, when the total amount received by the chief’s sister higher than the other officials was 278 BGN.

Veselin Nikolov is in conflict of interests found the commission responsible for the investigation of relationships of the civil servants. The Commission for Prevention and Establishment of Conflict of Interests delivered its decision in December 2011 determining a sanction to the head of the regional social security service at the amount between 7,000 and 10,000 BGN. At the end of January, the period for challenging the refusal expires. If Nikolov will turn to the court which has already punished him for his impudence in disregarding the obligations under the APIA, we are about to see.

January 2012
 

This case is part of the book "Civil Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 stories of NGOs)" published by AIP within the implementation of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information” supported with a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).

The whole responsibility for the content shall be taken by the Access to Information Programme Foundaiton and it cannot be assumed under any circumstances that the document reflects the official stance of the  Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Programme for NGO support in Bulgaria.

 

 

 


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