ACF Calls for Sanctioning of Anti-Corruption Commission Members for Repeated Failure to Adhere to Final Court Decision

The Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) has applied with the Sofia City Administrative Court for the imposition of sanctions on Anton Slavchev, Antoaneta Georgieva–Tzonkova, Plamen Yotzov, and Silvia Kadreva, members of the Commission for the Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property (CFIAP), as well as other possibly liable officials.

The application was lodged following CFIAP’s decision, issued on 18 July 2024, which represents yet another refusal by the Commission to comply with the court’s final decision and disclose information about its decisions to forfeit illegally acquired properties.

“By failing to comply with decision 6774/14.11.2022 of the Sofia City Administrative Court, the responsible officials, in effect, violated a final court order. Therefore, we believe, there are sufficient grounds for them to be sanctioned under Art. 304 of the Code of Administrative Procedure,” said Lora Georgieva, a member of ACF’s legal team.

CFIAP’s decision was issued following a ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court in early July when the Commission’s attempt to challenge a decision of the Sofia City Administrative Court was rejected. The proceedings were initiated by ACF in 2022 following repeated refusals by CFIAP to abide by its responsibilities under the Access to Public Information Act, providing information about its decisions to initiate forfeiture procedures. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, CFIAP has no more space for procedural maneuvers having been given a 14-day deadline to provide full access to its forfeiture decisions – something that the Commission has been delaying for two years.

At the end of last week, however, CFIAP once again refused to provide ACF with the required information, claiming that its forfeiture decisions contained personal information. This decision contradicts the court’s ruling which clearly states that the required information is public and there are no grounds behind the refusal to provide it.

“Once again, the CFIAP has taken the liberty of interpreting and applying the law, violating a final legal decision, which it is obliged to comply with. This is a blatant violation of the rule of law; thus, we believe the officials responsible for this should be sanctioned,” said Georgieva.

ACF challenged the CFIAP’s refusal to provide information about its forfeiture decisions in April 2022. During the proceedings, it was established that the commission, in violation of the law, had declared that all its decisions to initiate confiscation proceedings were confidential. The decision to do so was taken in 2018 by Plamen Georgiev, the then-director of the CAFIAP (that public body has been split into two institutions, one of which is CFIAP). Georgiev resigned in 2019 following the Apartmentgate scandal[1], which began with revelations by the ACF[2] and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Georgiev’s order sealed decisions about the largest share of CFIAP’s activity, employing the highest number of its staff and accounting for most of its BGN 30 million annual budget[3].

The decisions are important because they provide information about the inquiries held by CAFIAP, the facts established in the course of the inquiries, the criteria applied by officials, and the legal conclusions which have led to proceedings by the Commission.

In November 2022, the Sofia City Administrative Court ruled that CFIAP’s decisions did not represent professional secrets. According to the court, these decisions constitute public information and there is an overriding public interest in making them public. The court ordered the commission to provide full access to the decisions within 14 days. The decision was final and was not supposed to be subject to appeal[4]

Instead of complying with the court decision, the CFIAP filed an action to declare it null and void and, in violation of the law, arbitrarily stopped the provision of the information sought by the ACF.

In March 2023, the Sofia City Administrative Court rejected CFIAP’s claim and refused to declare the judgment null and void. According to the court, the commission’s claim that the judgment was “incomprehensible” was completely unfounded.

Despite the unequivocal decision of the Sofia City Administrative Court, in April 2023, the CFIAP again resorted to procedural tricks and filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court. Thus, the disclosure of asset forfeiture decisions was delayed by another year.

In early July, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the decision of the court of first instance. Thus, CFIAP was left with no other option but to comply, something which it should have done two years ago.

“The more CFIAP delays publishing these decisions, the more the suspicions are growing that its leadership is afraid of the public reaction that will follow their disclosure”, said Boyko Stankushev, director of the ACF. “CFIAP’s gross violation of the law motivates us to use all available means to make public this information of high public interest.”

[1] https://bnr.bg/post/101150634/v-ns-obsajdat-ostavkata-na-shefa-na-kpkonpi-plamen-georgiev

[2] https://acf.bg/bg/kazusat-apartamentgeyt/

[3] Doklad_KONPI_2023.pdf (caciaf.bg)

[4] Supreme Administrative Court Orders Commission for the Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property to Provide Access to All Asset Forfeiture Decisions | | ACF