There is no political will for real reform in the Ministry of Interior. This is what Deputy Chairman of the board of the Trade Union Federation of the Interior Ministry employees Genadi Tenev told Iskra.bg. According to him, there is no continuity on the part of the political forces to continue something that has already been started.
„Every new government, and every new minister, declare that they will start solving the problems, but they do it in a piecemeal way and not according to the specific needs and views of the citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria and the employees in the Ministry of Interior, but according to their own understandings and ambitions“ – this has been repeatedly pointed out by the largest trade union in the Ministry of Interior.
In order to implement the change in the department, a thorough structural and functional analysis of the state of the Ministry of Interior’s structure and staffing, financial and material support, priorities and results of its activities, systems for selection, training and career development of personnel must be prepared, explained Tenev. According to him, there is currently a shortage of employees engaged in the main activities of the Ministry of Interior, while the maximum that can be trained new recruits per year is up to about 1,000 people. Tenev stressed that not all of the total number of the Ministry of Interior are officers performing security and operational activities, investigating crimes and ensuring fire safety and protection in case of fires, disasters and emergencies and therefore it is a myth that the country’s police officers are many in number compared to the population.
Once the situation is assessed, a strategy for the reform and development of the Ministry of Interior should be developed and adopted. And the final stage is the implementation of the reform itself. Tenev pointed out that, according to their organization, the implementation of a necessary reform in the Ministry of Interior and achieving sustainable results from it may take a period of 10 to 20 years.
„Unfortunately, over the years we have witnessed the lack of desire on the part of the political parties to prepare such a process, by discussing the problems of the system at an expert level and ensuring a political level of continuity for its implementation. In our opinion, from the SFSMVR, in order to outline and prepare such a reform, it is first necessary to make a thorough structural and functional analysis of the system and conduct a dialogue with the participation of:
- politically unconnected representatives of civil society – who should state what they expect from the Ministry of Interior and what they want it to do for society;
- representatives of political parties – who should commit to continuity to achieve the goal;
- representatives of union organizations of employees in the Ministry of the Interior, having the necessary expertise on the problems and possible solutions for them;
- security experts – having the necessary expertise on national and global practice in this field.
Without such a dialogue, any attempt would end in failure, the results of which we have seen many times over the years. Unfortunately, despite the declaration of desire for such a dialogue, there have been no real actions to start the necessary process so far,“, he added.
Genadi Tenev explained that the consequences of all attempts for piecemeal reforms were at the expense of the society and the employees. He gave the following example of the application of the mathematical model:
„In the event that in a particular police department or police station, the police officers have worked effectively and have achieved a low threshold of offences and crimes in the territory served, according to the mathematical model, this means that this unit of the Ministry of Interior is not loaded and should be either closed or converted into one of a lower rank with fewer officers. The result of this is an escalation of offences and crime in that territory.“
According to Tenev, the Ministry of Interior officers should be re-equipped with weapons, equipment and machinery that meet the modern requirements and standards for a member state of the European Union. For years, the FSMIA has been working together with partner trade unions from EU member states towards introducing minimum standards for equipment for all EU security service personnel.
The union’s research shows that employees in the Ministry of Interior experience insecurity in and from the system and this demotivates a large number of them.
It remains to be seen what actions the new government will take towards the Interior Ministry and whether it will listen to the real problems of the ministry and its employees.
