The Ministry of Finance of Bulgaria and Crown Agents have signed a contract for the implementation of the Second Phase of the Programme for Measures to Assist in the Modernisation of Bulgarian Financial Administration. The contract ensures continuity of the activities undertaken during the First Phase of the Programme. At the same time it extends Crown Agents’ support to a wider range of work areas related to the revenue enhancement process.

During the First Phase of the Programme for Modernisation of the Bulgarian Financial Administration that started in June 2007, Crown Agents made a large number of analyses and assessments of legislation and working practices. The advisors’ reports covered the VAT Registration System, VAT Fraud Detection, Development of the NRA (National Revenue Autority) Risk Management Approach, Enhancement of information exchange, NCA (National Customs Agency) Modernisation, MAT (Mobile Assurance Team) Training and Development,  Excise Control and Use of IT Systems to Prevent Corruption and Crime. On the basis of these analyses, Crown Agents made a total of 200 recommendations and provided advice and technical assistance with the planning of their implementation.

During the Second Phase of the Programme a major part of Crown Agents’ activities will be directly linked to the recommendations made so far and their practical implementation. The enhancement of the collection of state revenue will remain the top priority of the Programme but the activities will involve a wider range of work areas and organisations. Assistance will be provided not only to the agencies and departments within the Ministry of Finance but also to other state structures, responsible for protecting revenue, such as the Economic Police, the State Gambling Commission and SANS (the State Agency for National Security). This will include strengthening cooperation measures between the institutions, as well as the design and delivery of training in areas such as identification of customs fraud and money laundering. Crown Agents will assist SANS in the use of existing information pools to profile potentially fraudulent activity, targeted against the state revenue, and develop operational activity to counter those risks. Support will also be provided for the optimisation of the analytical and compliance inspection capabilities of the Directorate for Financial Intelligence, as well as the development of systems for Suspect Transaction Reports to help the analysis process.

The new contract with Crown Agents, which is for 3.9 million GBP will be effective from January 2009 until June 2010.  Nine long-term advisors will work under the programme, supported by a number of short-term experts.

The new contract will be supervised by a new Crown Agents Programme Director, Vivienne Davies, who is also Crown Agents` Director for Customs and Trade Faciliation. She will replace the previous Director, Mr. Brian Banks, who has headed the Crown Agents team in Bulgaria for the past 7 years. During Crown Agents’ work under the Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme, from 2002 to 2006, customs revenue increased by 182% from BGN2.5 million in 2001 to BGN7 billion in 2006  . During Phase One of the current Programme, a total of 200 recommendations were made and a number of key long-term measures were introduced, particularly the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Customs Agency and the Revenue Agency to share information.