In a newspaper interview HM Ambassador to Sofia, Steve Williams, was asked to comment on Crown Agents’ work and Bulgaria’s efforts to combat corruption. Ambassador Williams said that Crown Agents is a first class British company and underlined the fact that it has been providing advice to successive Bulgarian Governments.

Here is an excerpt from the interview, published on 11th of November 2009 by the Standard Daily:

Has the support for the measures against corruption that the PM Gordon Brown expressed to his Bulgarian counterpart Borissov following the July elections been practically implemented?

Gordon Brown said in his letter of congratulation to Mr Borissov that Mr Borissov could count on his the full political support if he implemented the step change in the fight against corruption and organised crime that the Bulgarian public had made clear at the ballot box that they wanted. But  the reforms that are being made to the Interior Ministry and, gradually, to the judiciary, the personnel changes that have been made in key positions, the greater willingness to dismiss and prosecute corrupt officials, the tightening up of public procurement across government – these are all welcome initiatives which need to be sustained and followed through. The continuing attempts to de-stabilise SANS is an example of the difficulties that still have to be overcome.

Crown Agents that have been in Bulgaria for a long time are even more useful in the current situation. What is the news around their work?

Crown Agents – despite their name! – are a private company with a contract with the Ministry of Finance, so I am not in a position to comment on their work: you have to ask the company and the Ministry that. All I would say is that they are a first class British company that has been providing advice to successive Bulgarian governments for many years to try to help improve customs and excise revenue collection. That is a key stated priority of Finance Minister Djankov.