"If the National Assembly approves the reform in the Interior Ministry, no less than 65 million Leva will be economized and would be spent on efficient police work," said Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Rumyana Bachvarova in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio. She added that the amendments to the Ministry of Interior Act will restructure the system from the inside, making it more flexible and will definitively divide the work performed into three categories. All measures proposed will optimize expenses and improve working conditions and incentive pay.

“The proposals we are making with regard to retirement compensations will be enforced more than ten years from now, but this is being done now, so that the people who are yet to enter the Interior Ministry system will be clear about their prospects,” Minister Bachvarova said. “Financially, the Interior Ministry has been generating deficits and it is our ambition to start to reduce these deficits over the years by putting in place better in-house organization.”

Commenting on the recommendations by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov that some regional police chiefs be replaced over poor performance, Minister Bachvarova stated that there was an annual comprehensive review system at the Interior Ministry and if there was poor performance at these departments, it would have to be analyzed, only then could an overall assessment be made. Rumyana Bachvarova added that replacing the chiefs of regional departments where results are poor was no problem.

Commenting on the draft of an anti-terrorism act, Minister Bachvarova indicated that there were several new laws in Europe, some of them quite radical. She added that she expected the act to be adopted before parliament’s summer break.

“There is very little migration pressure right now, though at times it does mount; it is lower compared to the same period of last year, though it has never stopped,” Rumyana Bachvarova stated.  

The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior denied information that she would be nominated vice president in GERB party’s presidential candidate couple.