21st Aug 2025
210 police officers from the Metropolitan Directorate of Interior and from 27 Regional Directorates of Interior were trained in 6 seminars, two of which with international participation. They were held in the period between September 25 - November 17, 2023 in the regions - Varna, Burgas and Blagoevgrad, and the main topic of the training was prevention and countering corruption.
The seminars are part of project, the theme of which is "Prevention and Counteraction of Corruption", funded under the Internal Affairs Program of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021. The General Directorate National Police (GDNP) is a partner of the Internal Security Directorate, Ministry of Interior.
The training program included several topics: practical aspects in the interaction between investigating police officers and officers with operational search functions in the investigation of corruption crimes; interaction with the European Prosecutor's Office; money laundering, illegal assets and corruption - the drivers of crime. In addition, a comparison was made before the trainees of the organization of activity in countering corruption crimes in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Spain.
Special attention was paid to increasing the effectiveness of economic police activities in the fight against corruption, as well as actions during crime scene inspections and, above all, the methods of seizing material evidence when it comes to computer configurations, data and electronic media. During the seminars, topics related to the detection of crimes falling within the scope of the Unified Catalog of Corruption Crimes - Segment 1 "Actual Corruption Crimes" and Segment 2 "Crimes of Officials with Probable Corruption Motive" were discussed. In both, particular attention was paid to the practical difficulties of carrying out inspections under the Judiciary Act, initial steps in the establishment of pre-trial proceedings and the benefit of forming joint teams.
Representatives from the police unit of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Fight against Corruption and Organized Crime in Spain participated as lecturers in the trainings; lecturers from the Operational Search Department, Police Faculty, Academy of Interior; lecturers from the Blagoevgrad District Prosecutor's Office and the Blagoevgrad District Investigation Department; "Combating crimes affecting the financial interests of the EU" Sector, Economic Police Department (EPD) GDNP; "Combating Corruption in the Administration" Sector at GDNP; "Investigation and Methodical Guidance of Investigation" Department GDNP; "Combating Crimes against the Financial and Credit System and Computer Crimes" Sector, EPD, GDNP.
The project activities continue and will be completed in March 2024.