20.08.2026
The Bulgarian Government’s political will and action taken to fight money laundering, the informal economy and corruption are yet another guarantee that gives Bulgaria a strong stepping stone to move away from the dishonorable “grey list”. This was stated by Prime Minister Rumen Radev at today’s Coordination and Cooperation Council meeting that was held in the Government Headquarters. The meeting made a review of the progress in the implementation of measures and action taken to remove the country from the “grey list” given the upcoming report on money laundering to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its planned visit to Bulgaria.
Prime Minister Rumen Radev pointed out that the cabinet that is now in office is the first ever to have a special section in its governance program while it is given a leading position, with clearly defined measures to fight corruption, the informal economy and money laundering. These measures are being implemented unswervingly, the Prime Minister emphasized and noted that all whistle blows of abuse and corruption get an immediate response by the relevant authorities such as the Ministry of Interior, the services and the financial police. “We are working on all cases and I will insist on even higher speed and fast results,” Rumen Radev said.
The Prime Minister specially gave prominence to the importance of the cabinet’s initiative “Sigma” that is a public instrument for transparency of the financial flows in the country. The system has already processed about 200,000 public procurement contracts and the findings show that in over 30% of these there is just one bidder. “We will work hard to make this percentage lower,” Rumen Radev noted. Work is already underway on the next stage to interconnect the system with the Business Register and all connections leading to corrupt practices will be exposed. In the future, the system will detect pricing anomalies where abnormally high prices emerge. At peak capacity “Sigma” will be a very strong tool of permanent automatic control against abuse. “It is important not just to fight corruption post-factum but also to devise tools to prevent and minimize such practices,” Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.
In addition, reference prices for the public utilities (water and sewage) and roadworks (maintenance and construction) are to be set accordingly. Also, intensive work is being done on digitalization so as to achieve integrated coordination in transport – of the toll system, the customs offices and the National Revenue Agency.
Prime Minister Rumen Radev pointed out that the cabinet’s ambition is not just to create a system to fight corruption post-factum in terms of investigation, detection and suppression but to put in place instruments to prevent money laundering, abuse, informal economy and corruption. “I call for prompt action between now and the visit of the FATF so that all remaining activities under this plan are carried out on time, meet quality standards and, of course, are duly reported,” the Prime Minister concluded.
