On April 23, 2007 the Centre for the Study of Democracy organized the Ninth Annual Anticorruption Policy Forum. The Forum is a high profile public event for anti-corruption initiatives, supporting the efforts of civil society and public institutions in the fight against corruption. The eighth consecutive Corruption Assessment Report entitled Anti-Corruption Reforms in Bulgaria: Key Results and Risks was presented and discussed at the event. The report makes an overview of the anti-corruption reforms in Bulgaria in 2006 and 2007.
Mr. Stamen Tassev, BBLF Executive Director shared his opinion on the fight against corruption on the forum. He greeted the organizations for their attempt to analyze the phenomenon of corruption and the fight against it. Mr. Tassev expressed disappointment that BBLF and other two business organizations were given only 6 minutes to speak on the topic. He also shared some statistics, which raise doubts about the conclusions from the publications that the shadow economy has decreased. He pointed as a very indicative example the fact that the cash transactions over 30 000 BGN have risen with 50% while the economic and income growth were approximately 5-6%. According to Mr. Tassev the mentality for fighting corruption should be formed in the young people, and this seems a better approach than the dissemination of anticorruption films among the state administration.
