Bulgaria End-of-Term Report 2016-2018 – For Public Comment

In 2019, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... published the end of term report for Bulgaria’s third action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... The report covers the full action plan implementation period of July 2016 to June 2018.

In Bulgaria, the IRM researcher Stephan Anguelov’s findings are summarized below:

“Bulgaria’s third action plan was mostly oriented towards e-government and depended on the technical implementation of projects, which was often slowed down by changes in government and long public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More procedures. At the end of the action plan cycle, over half of the commitments saw only limited completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More or were not started, and most did not lead to any changes in government practice.”

And in Bulgarian:

“Третият план за действие на България бе насочен предимно към електронното правителство и зависеше от техническото изпълнение на проектите, което често се забавяше от промените в правителството и дългите процедури за обществени поръчки. В края на цикъла на плана повече от половината от ангажиментите достигнаха само ограничено изпълнение или не бяха започнати и повечето не доведоха до промени в практиката на правителството.”

The version of the report for public comment is available in English and in Bulgarian here. The two-week public comment period closed 26 July 2019.