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Description
Absence of a sufficiently transparent public environment and accountability of institutions are among the most serious threats to the Bulgarian democracy. The media play an important role in this model. Meant to be a guardian of democracy, the media are a guardian of oligarchic interests. Bulgaria holds last place in the media freedom ranking in the EU (Reporters Without Borders, 2020). Trust in the main institutions has been undermined. Quite a few people fall an easy prey to manipulation, disinformation and conspiracy; populist, nationalist and xenophobic attitudes crop up. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing problems. In this unprecedented situation, it is first and foremost important to ensure transparency of processes in the state governance and the relations with the corporate power. The project aims at raising the awareness of the public and the accountability of institutions by means of targeted materials, highlighting key public policies. The main outcome will be in-depth factual studies and investigations, tracing decision-making processes and how they take place. We will monitor for violations, covert mechanisms, dependencies or abuse in key fields of public interest: public procurement contracts, the EU Funds, healthcare, justice, elections, energy and climate, security. Our approach combines efficient monitoring of policies and professional assessment of the impact of implementing them. The project will contribute to greater transparency of the public institutions and informed civic participation. The latter will help revive the democratic character of public institutions, which is also paramount for the successful overcoming of the Covid crisis as well. We will also address the issue of controlled information, providing faithful content.
Summary of project results
The main goal of the project was to improve the transparency and accountability of public institutions by putting key public policies and major centers of power in the spotlight.
A series of developments and investigations were published, focusing on decision-making processes and their implementation, political debates, violations, or abuses in key areas of public interest. Alongside these, audience surveys were conducted and 8 video podcasts were produced. All of them enjoyed high public interest - 1,044,884 readings of the materials on the project''s website and 2,498,199 on Facebook.
The most important result of the project and its primary impact is the increased awareness among the general public about the real facts related to the work of institutions on key public policies, heightened interest in specific cases, and better understanding of relevant processes. It has activated public groups, professional communities, independent experts, and NGOs. Some of the publications have contributed to specific positive effects: changes in laws and other regulatory acts; activation of various state institutions; changes in their practices for transparency and accountability; correction of public policies; changes in the management of state-owned companies.
The disclosure by InfoSpace made on their media platform Mediapool on the transparency of detected abuses of public funds has been included in the annual EC Report on the Rule of Law in the EU (https://www.mediapool.bg/cherna-dupka-v-prokuraturata-poglashta-polovinata-dokladi-na-finansovata-inspektsiya-news347608.html). The publication raises an alarm about a serious issue related to the transparency of disclosures of abuses of public funds in the activities of the Agency for State Financial Inspection and the National Audit Office. It appears that half of the reports by ASFIA and some key audit reports by the National Audit Office cannot be made public for years as they are sent to the prosecutor''s office, and by law, investigation materials cannot be disclosed without the prosecutor''s permission. Mediapool has established that sending disclosures from ASFIA and the National Audit Office to the prosecutor''s office is used to conceal them from the public and to keep certain state officials responsible for the violations in dependence and subservience. The investigation project has not been covered by any other media, but it has a significant practical impact. Mediapool''s disclosure of the lack of transparency in the audits of the National Audit Office handed over to the prosecutor''s office is one of the findings in the annual European Commission Report on the Rule of Law in the EU (published on July 5, 2023), where on page 23 in the section on Bulgaria, the problem of political pressure on the National Audit Office in conditions of political instability is mentioned. The commitment of the office, announced a few days after Mediapool''s publication, to publish 17 excerpts from audits that have not been public until now due to submission to the prosecutor''s office (https://www.mediapool.bg/smetnata-palata-za-prav-pat-shte-oglasi-17-odita-potanali-v-chernata-dupka-v-prokuraturata-news348028.html) is noted.