Twenty-six people were detained on March 31 at the Kapitan Andreevo border check-point – the principal road transport border crossing into and from Turkey – for involvement in a cigarette smuggling ring via Bulgaria, among them thirteen customs officers and three border police officers. On April 1 the news came that all customs officers detained had been released with only their shift supervisor remaining behind bars. But the men released turned state’s evidence in an investigation of a large-scale cigarette smuggling ring worth millions. The fight against corruption continues.

Some twenty years ago one Bulgarian Prime Minister asked his economic advisor what reforms he should undertake so that their effect on the country’s economic development could become apparent quickly. The answer was that there was no need for any special reforms in order to do this, all that was needed for a start, was to put the country’s customs houses in order. Twenty years on, putting Bulgarian customs in order is still on the agenda. 2014 data show that some 20 percent of the cigarettes sold in Bulgaria were smuggled into the country – in recent years this figure has constantly been growing. Tobacco products tax loss amounts to around EUR 230 million a year, which is tantamount to 2 percent of the total tax revenues for 2014, or 0.6 percent of the GDP. In view of the fact that Bulgaria is the EU country where tobacco product taxation accounts for the biggest relative share in the state budget execution, it is also the EU country that incurs the biggest losses from contraband. Cigarette smuggling costs 1.6 – 2 percent of the overall tax revenues. In this index, Bulgaria is way ahead of all other EU members. In terms of relative contribution to the budget, its losses are 3 times higher that in Romania or Poland for example, 10 times higher than in Germany and around 16 times higher than in the Netherlands.

The latest arrests of customs officers are an indication that, besides all else, the appetites for contraband in the country are still high. Two months earlier, at that same border check-point, a blatant arrest was made of the head of the custom-house there, again for letting contraband through from Turkey. The handcuffs slapped onto his wrists do not seem to have toned down the propensity to smuggling – it seems the temptation is just too much.

At the dawn of the transition to democracy, during consultations with a friendly country, one high ranking official from the financial sphere asked whether there was corruption pressure on their customs officers as well. The answer was frank – if a customs officer does not go corrupt in four years he gets to be a hero. There is no information of any heroes in Bulgaria’s custom-houses to date; the very word “customs officer” has acquired a derogatory meaning.

In the fight against contraband and corruption, Bulgaria is making use of the same methods applied anywhere else in the world – frequent changes in the place of employment, rotation of the senior management, use of special surveillance equipment, involvement of special task forces and the prosecutor’s office etc. Yet it is evident that these are not enough and the efforts must be re-channeled – from intercepting contraband and catching corrupt customs-officers to getting to the contracting party.

English version: Milena Daynova