SANS 2009: Reactions

The State Agency for National Security has to clear up its intelligence profile. This point was mostly discussed after the second report for SANS was presented by RiskMonitor. On June 21 RiskMonitor presented the results of the study “Monitoring the State Agency for National Security – 2009” in Pressclub Sofia Press.

The 24 Chasa Daily newspaper quotes the statement made by Stefan Popov, RiskMonitor’s Executive Director, that SANS is a strongly empowered institution, which can even be considered threat to society. The Agency has been structurally defective from its very establishment, since it incorporates police, investigative and intelligence functions. This odd combination of varied services has been made inconveniently and turns out to be defective.

The Trud Daily newspaper lays emphasis on the recruitment procedure of undercover employees. According to Momchil Metodiev, one of the authors of the report, there is a risk of manipulating the recruitment procedure due to lack of control over the necessity of hiring such employees.

As Mediapool notes, the analysis made by RiskMonitor shows that one of the reasons for the institutional weakness of SANS is its connection with the political authority circles. Experts from RiskMontor are certain that the Agency should not be closed down, but it should stop being recognized as the “Bulgarian FBI”, since the Agency is not an investigative institution.

All media reactions (in Bulgarian):