July 2, 2010



The National Assembly adopted at the sitting, dated July 2, 2010, at first reading, amendments to the National Archives Fund Act, aimed at updating the administrative structure and at optimizing the management of the state archives. The new changes are inspired by the Constitutional Court decision of 27 May 2010, declaring the adopted at the end of last year's Bill on amendment to the National Archival Fund Act unconstitutional, due to violations committed in the process of its adoption. The Constitutional Court ruled that the two readings of the bill occurred in a single sitting of the parliament, thus not giving enough time proposals to be made before the second final reading.

The movers of the bill, from the GERB parliamentary group, explain in the report that the newly adopted act does not differ in content from the previous one. The act introduces the structure of the Regional State Archives. The final structure and scope of activities of the State Archives Agency and its subsidiaries remains to be specified in its Statutes (Rules of Procedure). According to the motives of the act, the newly introduced regional chapters would allow for greater flexibility and optimization of the administrative and archival work of the agency. The amendments define more accurately the essence of and scope of activity of the Central State Archives within the State Archives Agency. The latter would be mainly in charge of permanently preserving (keeping) documents of the central state bodies. The municipal institutions’ documents will be kept by the regional state archives. The act lays down clearly and precisely the powers and responsibilities of the President of the State Archives Agency, namely to strengthen the ongoing and preventive control over all state and municipal institutions for the conservation of documents in the state and municipal institutions and prevent their possible destruction.

The National Assembly decided to close down the Advisory Board for Financial Management and Control of the Ministry of Finance making amendments to the Financial Management and Control in the Public Sector Act. According to the current rules, the Board was having the task to support the Minister of Finance in the strategic planning, monitoring and coordination of the financial management and to exercise control over upper management accountability. Deputies agreed to impose a fine between BGN 200 and 1000 on senior officers, heads of organizations, with the exception of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Auditing Chamber that have not provided to the Minister of Finance, by 31 March of the year, reports on the status of their financial management and control systems.

The Parliament voted to reduce the membership of the Commission for the Protection of Competition / CPC / from seven to five. These were amendments adopted at second reading of the Law on Protection of Competition. The changes envisage the committee to consist of a chairman, one deputy chairman and three members, having the same term of office of five years. Up to now the committee has consisted of seven persons, including the chairman, two vice-chairmen and four members, elected and dismissed by the National Assembly. The chair was elected for six years, the vice-chairmen and the members - for five years. The National Assembly is to elect the new members of the Commission in a month after the amendments take effect.

The National Assembly has rejected the proposal to grant the status of civil servants to the employees working in the State Road Infrastructure Agency and to make the appointments in the Agency subject to mandatory competition.