The register against corruption in the judiciary, which was not created

Chief Judicial Inspector Teodora Tochkova has been heading the inspectorate for almost 10 years. She was elected by the National Assembly in 2014, and since then no parliamentary majority has been gathered to hold a new election. The Chief Judicial Inspector is elected for five years and the members for 4.

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Who needs to be killed in order for the judicial inspectorate to start working properly?

This question may seem extremely provocative, but it inevitably arises when, a few months after the murder of Martin Bojanov – the Notary, who is alleged to be part of a network of influence in the judicial system, the chief judicial inspector Teodora Tochkova announced that a discrepancy had been discovered of over BGN 10,000 in a declaration to a judge without specifying the exact amount. This judge was one of the verified magistrates for whom the inspectorate self-reported after the murder, and information about the discrepancy was submitted to the National Revenue Agency.

The inspection covered the property and conflict of interest declarations for each of the years (seven in total) between 2016 and 2022 of magistrates “regarding the influence groups in the judicial system – of Petyo Petrov – Pepi Evroto and Martin Bojanov – the Notary”. For “one of the inspected magistrates, a discrepancy was found between the value of the property of the magistrate and of a person related to him, and the amount of the declared funds received,” reads the official announcement on the subject.

From the institution’s reply to “Dnevnik” it is also understood that during the initial check of the declarations of the specific magistrate no inconsistencies were found, but it is not known why during the subsequent, called by the inspectorate “analysis” there was already a difference between what was declared and what was owned .

The question of whether this discrepancy was really discovered only now and why it was missed is not clearly answered, but the impression remains that checks become effective when interests change. The inspectorate tries to pass the ball to other institutions and argue with the lack of competence to check the origin of the funds, i.e. the actual property status of the magistrates.

Most likely, it is about the former prosecutor and current judge Margarita Nemska, who lives on a conjugal basis with one of the lawyers from Bojanov’s group – lawyer Emil Piskov – this was understood from Tochkova’s words, quoted by “24 Chasa” in a speech before the parliamentary commission that checks the activities of the Notary.

Tochkova announced that she could not name the magistrates who undermine the prestige of the judiciary

The long answer of the inspectorate to “Dnevnik” reads:

“All audits of this magistrate’s declarations for the relevant years have ended with compliance reports, as the SJC has empowered the Inspectorate of the High Judicial Council to carry out an audit only by comparing the declared facts in the magistrate’s declaration and the facts and circumstances that are entered, announced and certified in the relevant public registers (Art. 175e of the Civil Code). In this sense, due to the lack of discrepancy between the declared circumstances and those entered in the relevant public registers, the verification of the declarations of this magistrate has ended with a compliance report.

In view of the data presented in media publications from the beginning of 2024 about the proximity of a related person of the magistrate to Martin Bojanov, we performed an analysis of the declarations of the magistrate to establish whether there is evidence of a difference between the income and expenses of the magistrate and his related person for each of the years indicated.

When performing an analysis of the data from the inspections under chapter nine, section Ia of the ZSV of the annual declarations of property and interests submitted to the IRS, a discrepancy was found between the value of the property of the magistrate and a person related to him, and the amount of the declared funds received.

It is established that the expenses of this magistrate for the purchase of properties, for the repayment of loans, for the leasing of cars, for the education of a child many times exceed his income and that of the person related to him, and for 2022 the difference is significant.

However, IVSS does not have the authority to verify the origin of the funds, i.e. the actual property status of the magistrate. Competent for this are the NRA and the Anti-Corruption Commission, which we have signaled”.

The site bird.bg wrote that in its declaration for 2022 Judge Nemska declared the purchase in the same year of an apartment in Barcelona together with her husband worth almost one million BGN.

Teodora Tochkova: I have not visited “SS Club” nor “Eight Dwarfs”, I do not go to restaurants

Seven years and 300 thousand BGN later

Probably, this discrepancy could have been detected in time if the judicial inspectorate had successfully completed a project under the Operational Program “Good Governance” (OPDU) worth BGN 700 thousand. Its name is “Ensuring software and methodological security, and building the administrative capacity of the Supreme Court of Justice for the prevention of corruption in the judiciary”

It envisages the construction of two public registers, as well as the automation of checks of submitted documents.

That is, inconsistencies like that of Margarita Nemska probably could have been detected years before Martin Bojanov’s murder, and automatically. Until now, checks of what was declared by the magistrates are done manually, which is always a prerequisite for problems – intentional or not.

The key register that had to be built with the European funds is that of property declarations and of conflicts of interest. The project states that, in addition to a system for remote submission of declarations and their publication online, software must also be developed to allow automated checks between what is declared and what is available in various databases (BNB, GRAO, Property and Commercial Register, Traffic Police, Central depository, etc.), as well as a number of other functionalities.

The project also envisages the construction of a second public register, in which the recusals of all judges from the country and the reasons for this must be uploaded in real time.

As part of the project budget, there are also funds for the development of rules for the conduct of inspections, for trainings for working with the newly created registers, holding conferences, advertising materials, etc.

That’s what the contract is for concluded in 2017, but after nine unsuccessful procedures for selecting a contractor, a new public procurement has not been announceddue to the expiration of the contract in 2023.

The inspectorate told “Dnevnik” that in September 2024 a new order is expected to be announced without specifying what its value will be and where the funding will come from.

Teodora Tochkova has been the head of the inspectorate for almost 10 years. She was elected by the National Assembly in 2014, and since then no parliamentary majority has been gathered to hold a new election (the chief judicial inspector is elected for five years, and the members for 4).

Even when the project was announced, the magistrates announced that they expected to increase the expert capacity, to introduce new tools for the modernization of the judicial system and to provide effective guarantees for the prevention of corruption among the representatives of the judiciary.

Seven years later, however, a little over 300 thousand BGN has been used for the project (as seen in the information system for managing and monitoring funds from the European Union), but there are no records. Although the funds used are mainly for the activity of the project related to the construction of the registers.

The inspectorate confirmed to “Dnevnik” that no registers were entered.

“The purpose of creating EPRED (note order, electronic public register of electronic declarations) was to facilitate the magistrates by providing an opportunity to submit their declarations electronically, on the one hand, and on the other – to facilitate the checks of these declarations by receiving electronically the information from the relevant public registers and comparing it with the declared information,” the inspectorate also replied.

And they specify that despite the lack of a specific software product to automate the checks, all magistrates’ declarations are checked in a timely manner by requesting and comparing the information obtained from the relevant public registers.

The reason for the failure to carry out nine procedures so far, according to the inspectorate, is that none of the selected executives can perform all the activities specified in the contract – and more specifically activity 3 “Preparation of a detailed specification (system project)”.

The last concluded contract is from two years ago – June 14, 2022. Then the selected contractor – who, like the previous two, fails to perform all the activities specified in the contract.

“The specified activity is essential for the complete implementation of the subject of the contract and obtaining a software product, fully suitable and functional for the needs of the Inspectorate at the SJC. In this sense, the inaccurate and incomplete implementation of this activity would have led to the failure of the entire contract, and thereby jeopardize the implementation of the project “Providing software and methodological support and building the administrative capacity of the CSI for the prevention of corruption in the judicial system”, financed by the OPDU, say the inspectorate, without specifying the reason for the problematic implementation of this activity.

According to the project, the governing body of the “Good Governance” Operational Program checks the concluded contracts and orders three times and finds a problem. Fines were imposed on the inspectorate in the amount of over 37 thousand BGN, the arguments being lack of good financial management and violation of public procurement documentation.

There are no registers, but money for training – yes

According to the project, rules have been adopted for “checking the property declarations of judges, prosecutors and investigators”, as well as for “developing internal rules for checking the integrity of magistrates”. These rules are uploaded to the Inspectorate’s website. The value for their development reported for the project is over 13 thousand BGN, while the funds allocated to train employees to work on them are slightly over 60 thousand BGN.

Some time ago, “Capital” wrote that in 2018, within the framework of the project, the judicial inspectorate opened an order for the selection of a company to organize logistics and publicity and communication activities.

The company “Benevent” was chosen as the contractor, and the contract is worth BGN 88,000. They were for trainings for working with the new internal rules, and the trainings were in four-star or five-star hotels in Sofia. This is also one of the contracts for which the governing body found, and subsequently the court confirmed, that it was carried out in violation of the law.