The Anti-Corruption Fund received the Golden Key Award at a ceremony for the Right to Know Day
The Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) received the Golden Key Award at the 18th ceremony for the Right to Know Day (September 28), organized by the Access to Information Program. ACF received the award in the category “Non-governmental organization, which most actively used the instruments of the Access to Public Information Act (APIA).”
“Requesting public information from state institutions is one of the main ways we use to verify the data in our investigations,” ACF director Boyko Stankushev said upon receiving the award. “It is not uncommon for institutions, violating the law, to deny us access to information that is of public interest. In such cases, we file lawsuits to protect the right of society to be informed.”
The Anti-Corruption Fund obtained information precisely through the APIA in some of its landmark investigations. In 2018 and 2019, the ACF won 2 cases against the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency’s illegal refusals to provide crucial public information on the “Golden Puddle” and “War for Carcasses” investigations, which specified the scale of the misuses and violations of the law identified in both cases. In 2019, ACF also won a lawsuit against the Minister of Energy’s refusal to provide a document justifying the designation of the private Varna TPP as a “cold reserve” for the Bulgarian energy system, instead of the state-owned Maritsa Iztok 2 TPP. In 2020, in a lawsuit filed by ACF, the court ordered the Minister of Health to provide contracts for the supply of masks and respirators from China worth BGN 4.6 million.
Since the beginning of 2020, ACF has submitted over 30 applications to various institutions requesting access to public information under the APIA. ACF has won most lawsuits filed for refusals of institutions to provide such information.
“Access to public information is a civil right. We are glad that more and more organizations and citizens in Bulgaria are actively fighting to realize it. The shared efforts make us stronger in the fight for the right to know,” added Mr. Stankushev.