A structural and functional analysis of the Ministry of Internal Affairs should be prepared in order to determine the amount of the budget for the department. This was commented by the Deputy Chairman of the Trade Union Federation of Ministry of Internal Affairs Gennady Tenev to a journalist of Iskra.bg. He explained:
“First, a structural and functional analysis of the Ministry of Internal Affairs must be done, that is, what structures it has, what staff it has, what duties it has, what needs it has. This is not done. Every year some proposals are automatically made that go to the Ministry of Finance, the Minister of Finance decides what the Budget should be, regardless of what any institution wants except the justice system – they have an independent budget. The Ministry of Finance forms the budget for each ministry and for the country as a whole, regardless of what the Ministry of the Interior has requested. The question is how they form it. No one understands.”
We remind you that according to information from the until recently Chairman of the Board of Trade Union Federation of Ministry of Internal Affairs, Valentin Popov, in the draft state budget, the planned capital expenditures for the Ministry of the Interior are in the amount of only 19 million BGN. According to Tenev, this money is extremely insufficient, taking into account the maintenance of buildings, cars, because a large part is no longer under warranty, machinery, equipment.
But in order to determine the amount of capital expenditure, the structural and functional analysis of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in question must be prepared, starting from within.
“The expertise must be from the Ministry of the Interior, but it is not an obstacle and there have been similar precedents and external experts have prepared such an analysis. If it is internal from the ministry, it can be subjective due to many factors – first bias to one’s own work, second to offices and positions, those who prepare it, which should not exist or should not exist in this form. The best option is a joint working group to do it with external experts, Ministry of Interior experts, trade unions. „Several steps have been taken in this direction, but after the second or third there is some kind of stumbling and it falls”, commented Tenev.
Another experience was with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Boyko Rashkov – during the administration of which it was announced that such a 6-month analysis would be made. In the end, a model was prepared, which Tenev defines as “an old reheated meal”. According to him, after that, his successor in office, Ivan Demerdzhiev, made an attempt at reform and analysis. Exactly a year ago, he invited all trade union organizations and asked them to point out the problems in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which can be solved in a short period of time.
“From The trade union federation of employees in the Ministry of the Interior, we have pointed out and highlighted several problems, among which is excessive staffing in some places, functional duties and structures to be addressed. Redeployment of staff from places where there is no such workload to places where there is a need. The large amount of paperwork in the Ministry of the Interior, the excessive workload of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior, which is related to the allocation of positions and staff, since the Ministry of the Interior is charged with all kinds of duties, soon we may start counting the stars, because there are curiosities that in some populated areas officials to count the animals. These are nonsense because they clog up the system and are a problem for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We point them out because employees point them out to us“, Tenev said.
What happened?
“Two months of silence from the Ministry of Interior on these issues. We then asked them in writing what was going on. They held an emergency meeting, at which surprisingly Minister Demerdzhiev said – „Didn’t they send you the materials for this meeting?“ On the spot, they gave us 100 pages of materials to discuss. Due to the fact that we were not familiar, we postponed the meeting for a later stage. We reviewed them and the curious thing is that the materials contained analyzes prepared by these structures that we claim are problematic and culpable. Naturally, they wrote that there was no problem, everything was correct, and this process eventually stopped.”
The trade union federation of employees in the Ministry of the Interior reacted strongly and wrote a statement that they do not accept this, prepared by people and structures that they claim are to blame for the mentioned problems.
“The minister tells us to point out the problems, we point them out and, as a result, they give the guilty to write a statement about the problems presented. They write that there are no problems, and what can they write – they have to keep their own incompetence in the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, stressed Tenev and added:
“Due to the political instability in the country, we have the following excuses when we go to talks with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – „We are new; we are for a little; we are a service cabinet and have limited powers.“We have been hearing this for 4-5 years in a row. The other problem we’ve been talking about for years – there is no continuity. It takes between 10 and 20 years for a real reform to take place.”
In a time period of 10 years, which will ensure that the political parties will work in this direction, there will be continuity and sustainability of the ideas that are developed and the way of working, because otherwise it does not happen.
“Because everyone does something, pranks and leaves. The negative results are for the employees and for society.
When asked who is not interested in having a structural and functional analysis prepared, Tenev answered: “Exactly those who create the problems. They have no interest, perhaps because their places will be threatened as activities and as positions, or they themselves as individuals, or their vegetating in the Ministry of the Interior, there may also be political biases.”
The trade unionist confirmed that no such analysis has been prepared so far. There are started but never finished.
On the occasion of the Budget of the Ministry of the Interior, Tenev noted that money is never enough because prices are constantly rising. He pointed out that if the will to start and finish the building of the IV District Administration in Burgas is shown this year, half of this 19 million BGN should be allocated only for it. According to him, the 19 million leva in question is ridiculous against the background of this mega-department, which has such a large building fund and equipment.
For the fifth year, the necessary uniforms have not been delivered due to problems with public procurement, Tenev also commented, clarifying that at the moment it is claimed that there are uniforms in the central warehouses, but in some places there were none.
“Some employees are careful with the uniforms – they don’t get them, because there is an opinion that they will pay him, like a few years ago, but then there were no uniforms at all. Separately, deliveries are not rhythmic. Every year in the middle of the year, every employee who is in uniform states in advance by request what they need. This thing is taken, processed, comes next year, the employee goes to the warehouse and it turns out that some things are there and others are not. Why are these requests being made then? The idea is to make it and provide it. The problem comes with the Public Procurement Act. In order to make this thing, it must be commissioned, and in order to be commissioned, there must be a public procurement. There are uglinesses that are entirely related to the ZOP – related companies, appeals, unwinding of procedures and in the end he wins with the highest prices and until it is fulfilled…” Tenev stated and continued:
“We have been hearing for years that cars will be brought to them at the border. Where are they? The terrains are such that the cars are destroyed. It can’t be healthy. After the tragedy with Yordan Iliev and Atanas Gradev, the door was opened for these problems. Until then, there was silence about the problems – equipment and people. 1200 people can’t hire them for another year in the „Border Police“ to stop all these stories. This border is guarded with equipment and with a service dog, because in the forest and rough terrain, this is the best means. And there are none. They decided to send horses. They broke their legs, and they cost you a lot of money. A horse in the forest… This was invented by a former minister. Dogs – You have dogs. They sent dogs that are not trained for this activity and in this environment, for example to detect drugs. A radical difference, at least in the training, which is radically different and quite expensive. And finally, if you let it into the forest, then it won’t work for drugs either. At the moment, there are requests from the management of the DG „Border Police“ that the number of dogs to support the activity of guarding the state border will be doubled. But a dog grows, trains, takes time – it’s not a car that you go and buy and run.”
In conclusion on the topic of the Budget, Tenev replied:
“For years, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has been claiming that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not managed by political and professional leadership, but by officials, because they make these forecasts, as well as the one they give to the Minister of Finance for the Budget. All funds pass through them. We have asked for a written breakdown of the funds that are for the Budget. We were told that it was none of our business. The conclusion is that money is set aside for other works – to fill holes.”
Will they demand from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications an increase in the salaries of employees in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, find out in the sequel.
