The Commission for Consumer Protection is to be reduced in status to an agency subordinated to the Ministry of Economy and Energy, and the move means that its entire management will be fired. This proposal is submitted by socialist MP Rumen Getchev between first and second reading of the Bill amending the Law on Consumer Protection. The drafted maneuver looks just like what is happening with the Supreme Auditing Office, where again through legislative changes, the aim appears to be replacement of the chairperson elected for a five-year term. The current chairman of the Commission for Consumer Protection, Veselin Zlatev, was a appointed for a term expiring in 2016 and in practice can not be removed in any other way than by the closure of the institution itself. Mr. Zlatev is a founding member of the GERB party and the position he now occupies is not to the liking of today’s leaders.
If the proposal of Mr. Getchev is accepted. All assets, liabilities, records, and other rights and obligations of the Commission will be transferred to the new agency. It will be a legal entity with headquarters in Sofia and with regional offices throughout the country, and its expenditures will be covered from the state budget and own revenues. The structure, activity, organization of work and its three-panel composition will be determined by regulations adopted by the Council of Ministers. The labour relations with officials, however, will be settled on the terms and conditions of Article 87 of the Civil Servants Act and accordingly they will be transferred to the new structure. Only the powers and the mandate of the chairman and members of the Commission will be terminated upon the entry into force of the statutory amendments.
In the future, the Agency for Consumer Protection will be managed and represented by an Executive Director who will be appointed by the economy minister. The requirements for him will be to have a Master’s degree and at least five years of work experience and not to have had a leading position in a political party or organization. The Executive Director will also have a deputy who will be appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Economy and Energy, too.
The BANKER
