On 12th May the British Ambassador, Steve Williams, hosted a reception in recognition of seven years of partnership between Crown Agents and Bulgaria in the areas of revenue enhancement and modernisation of the financial administration. In his opening speech, HM Ambassador Steve Williams said “Crown Agents is one of the most successful British companies in Bulgaria. The Embassy had been very pleased to support their work in the country”. He also added “Crown Agents has a long and proud history.  Last year the organisation celebrated 175 years of its existence. It has a unique experience of public sector reform and particularly public finance management, both on the revenue collection side and on the management of Government expenditure.”

Crown Agents Programme Director, Vivienne Davies, said “It has been a privilege for us to work with so many professional people over the last seven or more years. Some changes have been much easier to introduce than others, some have an immediate effect but for others it will need much more time for the impact to be felt”. Ms Davies is also the Deputy Director Public Finance Management Directorate for Crown Agents in London and is responsible for the Team that undertakes Customs and Trade Facilitation projects throughout the world. She continued to say, “There is still a lot more to do – there always will be. Government is never static and the economic environment as we have all recently discovered is always potentially unstable. Exactly in these uncertain times, where Government finance is squeezed through lower revenue receipts, reduced inward investment and increased competition from abroad, it is important to ensure that revenues are collected effectively and efficiently”.

The reception was also attended by representatives of Bulgarian Government, business, media and diplomatic missions in Sofia, including: Maria Pinto, Advisor to the Prime Minister; Hristo Kulishev, Director-General of the National Customs Agency; Ivo Prokopiev, Chairman of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria; Maxim Behar; the Ambasadadors from Denmark, Sweden, Albania, Macedonia and Croatia. The Crown Agents Team Leader from our programme in Macedonia also attended.

Crown Agents has provided consultancy services to the Government of Bulgaria since 2002 when the company began to deliver a radical Programme of Customs reform. The Programme had a significant and sustainable impact upon the effectiveness of the Customs Service and directly upon the levels of customs revenue. In July 2004 the Ministry of Finance signed a new contract with Crown Agents to continue to provide assistance in the process of Customs modernisation. This resulted in a further increase in Customs revenue and a large number of sustainable reforms were also introduced. A new contract was signed in June 2007 to assist Bulgaria to meet the new challenges of an EU Member State and Crown Agents developed a Programme for Measures to Assist in the Modernisation of Bulgarian Financial Administration. Phase I of this Programme was completed in December 2008 and a new contract was signed in January 2009 for further 18 months to implement Phase II.