16 May 2008

The amendments prohibit teachers to provide paid teaching services to their students when a conflict of interest is present. The rule covers school headmasters, their deputies, the heads and employees of the regional inspectorates overseeing school education, as well as the officials in the Ministry of education and the respective municipal departments.

The teaching staff will be required to submit, at the beginning of each year, a written declaration, to the school headmaster, whether they have taught privately. If a conflict of interest is found, or the declaration is fraudulent, or has not been submitted, teachers will be subjected to disciplinary punishment.

The state matriculation exams will not have any age limitations and could be taken as many times as necessary. The Minister of Education will approve the preparatory examination materials for the pilot and regular matriculation exams.

MPs passed on second reading the amendments to the Business Registry Act which foresees for attorneys at law with an expressed power of attorney to be able to process clients’ papers regarding company registration, liquidation or business data in the register.

Amendments to the Municipal Property Act were discussed on second reading.

During time for parliamentary control questions raised by MPs were answered by Deputy Prime Minister Emel Etem, and Ministers Assen Gagauzov, Evgeni Gelev, Emilia Maslarova, Stefan Danailov and Mihail Mikov.