Political corruption

The huge cash stocks of companies are likely to fuel corruption in the country. This was commented to the Bulgarian National Radio by the Minister of Finance Asen Vassilev.

According to him, preliminary information indicates that there are such large cash stocks.

The former dean of Romania's Police Academy, Adrian Iacob, and his former deputy, Mihail Marcoci, have each received suspended prison sentences of three years for instigating a fellow officer to blackmail a journalist who had revealed corruption at the institution.

The bill also includes a ban on "gratuity" payments to doctors that have plagued the health service for the last 70 years, undermining general trust in the system and giving patients the illusion that by tipping doctors they would receive favourable treatment in public hospitals.

According to the latest results of a survey by Alpha Research, conducted between March 27th and 30th among 1,007 adult Bulgarians across the country.

The NGO Anti-Corruption Fund says that Bulgaria is facing a serious risk of electoral fraud at upcoming elections on 4 April, with irregularities found at one in every five polling stations.

The NGO analysed a total of 2,554 polling stations of a total of about 11,000 and estimated that around 5% of all votes cast could be subject to fraud.

Few experts see North Macedonia's new Register of Ultimate Beneficial Owners as a silver bullet in an uphill fight against corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.

The Bulgarian National Assembly has adopted the annual report of the Counter-Corruption and Unlawfully Acquired Assets Forfeiture Commission. It was supported by 76 MPs, as 35 abstained.

Judge Adrian Dvorani. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

"Judge Dvorani developed mechanisms to reduce political and criminal influence in the justice system, steps that contributed to the EU's decision in March to open negotiations for Albania's accession," the State Department said in a statement.

In late January, Calovic Markovic, for years a thorn in the side of the DPS, was named as one of two civil society representatives on a newly-created National Council for the Fight against High-Level Corruption.

The president of Cyprus on Friday unveiled anti-corruption measures to counter a groundswell of public disenchantment following a scandal involving the country's defunct citizenship-for-investment program.