At the invitation of the British Embassy in Sofia, a high-level Bulgarian delegation explored UK’s experience in combating the threats to revenue collection, posed by organised crime. The delegation included the Deputy Minister of Finance, Georgi Kadiev; the Director-General of the National Customs Agency, Assen Assenov; the Director-General of the National Revenue Agency, Maria Murgina; the Director of the Ministry of Interior Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, chief commissioner Vanyo Tanov; and the chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Combating Corruption, Boyko Velikov.

Strategic anti-corruption efforts and possible threats in the region were the topics discussed during the visit to the Foreign Office. The delegates also became acquainted with one of the newest governmental structures in the UK, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which has been established to work in innovative ways based on stronger inter-agency cooperation.

The delegation also made a visit to the HM Revenue and Customs, a recently formed merger between HM Revenue and Customs and Inland Revenue. The topics discussed included combating VAT frauds, strategic threat assessments, sharing of intelligence between compatible systems and international dimension on organised crime.

In the beginning of the visit to the UK, which all the delegates appreciated as valuable and productive, the Bulgarian representatives took part in a two-day seminar organised by Crown Agents. The aim of the seminar was to identify the major threats to revenue collection in Bulgaria and to examine how these issues are addressed by the country’s existing control, enforcement and anticorruption agencies. Crown Agents experts gave presentations on a number of issues and provided the participants with useful documents to assist in their work.