Interinstitutional co-ordination centre for countering smuggling and controlling the movement of risk goods and cargos

The interinstitutional co-ordination centre for countering smuggling and controlling the movement of risk goods and cargos unites the efforts in the area of the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, where it is situated, the General Directorate National Police and the General Directorate Border Police with the Ministry of Interior, the State Agency National Security, the Customs Agency, the National Revenue Agency with the Ministry of Finance and the Executive Agency Automobile Administration with the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications. It is co-ordinating all major operations against smuggling of key goods like gas and alimentary products and provides a comprehensive response towards the law enforcement and financial aspects of those criminal activities. It is thus supposed to have a long term effect on the reduction of large scale smuggling.

The Center is situated at the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (GDCOC) with the Ministry of Interior. It ensures co-ordination and co-operation among the competent state structures when applying measures against smuggling and for control of movement of risk goods and cargos on the territory of the country. The center has a round-the-clock operative work regime and is financially supported by the budgets of the respective authorities. It gathers, processes and analyses information on goods and cargos under specific cases, as well as on smuggling goods. It analyses and monitors risk transport means, goods and cargos on the territory of the country through co-ordinated joint action of the authorities, represented in the center.
The Center works through officers, designated by the participating authorities on a rotation principle. They are led by a designated officer from the GDCOC. GDCOC also ensures the logistics of the Center.
The Center has its own communication and information infrastructure, which may also integrate information from other authorities’ information and video surveillance systems.
The Center has regulations, approved by a deputy prime minister, the minister of interior, the minister of finance, the minister of transport, information technologies and communications and the chair of the State Agency for National Security.

The Center is sustainable as it is jointly operated by several key stakeholders and supported by their institutional budgets.

The Center presents a much needed model of interinstitutional co-operation and joint action and can and should be transferred to other law enforcement contexts.

No publicly available evaluations have been found.

The Center is an interinstitutional body and is in itself a product of the co-operation of the participating entities.
• General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime with the Ministry of Interior
• General Directorate National Police with the Ministry of Interior
• General Directorate Border Police with the Ministry of Interior
• State Agency National Security
• Customs Agency
• National Revenue Agency with the Ministry of Finance
• Executive Agency Automobile Administration with the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Not enough information

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https://www.lex.bg/bg/laws/ldoc/2136477154 - the regulation of the Centre
http://www.gdbop.bg/bg/cent - website of the Center
https://www.mvr.bg/press/%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8/news160228_02
https://www.mvr.bg/press/%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8/news170214_01
https://www.mvr.bg/press/%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4/%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B8/reportaj160228_01 - major operations by the Center

The Center was created to unite the efforts of law enforcement, intelligence and tax authorities to counter smuggling and control and monitor risk transports, goods and cargos. As those phenomena are still very much a challenge to authorities, co-operation against them is still a very valid aim for the state bodies involved.
The Center serves as an umbrella structure for many of the major operations against smuggling of important goods like meat and gas, providing for timely involvement of law enforcement and tax authorities and a comprehensive response to criminal activities. Providing a mechanism for joint response, and training of relevant authorities, is fully consistent with the intended impact of the Center to counter smuggling and monitor risk goods in a comprehensive and more effective and efficient way.

Based on the publicly available information on the Center’s activity, it is so far achieving its objectives to a large extent as it provides a platform for concerted action to counter all aspects of smuggling. It is also the point where data on tax fraud in gas trade and other similar activities are transferred. The major factors to achieve those objectives is the availability of specific regulation of the Center’s activity, making it binding for the authorities concerned, and the existence of political will on the part of the authorities’ top ranks.
As evidence of the Center’s effectiveness, the Ministry of Interior’s latest report (January- 20 April 2017) reports that, as a result of the Center’s action, 352 securities on companies of risk profile were imposed amounting to 3 mln BG Leva. Three signals to the Prosecutor’s Office were sent.

The response can be considered cost-efficient as its costs are taken by the budgets of the participating authorities. By co-ordinating work and operations against smuggling, the Center can be considered to achieve its objectives in a timely manner. As smuggling and risk goods monitoring are complex phenomena requiring a multi faceted response, interinstitutional co-operation can be considered to have no alternative to counter them.

The Center has streamlined the activities of relevant authorities against smuggling and risk goods and cargos. It has allowed the parallel countering of the law enforcement and financial aspects of major criminal operations like smuggling of gas and alimentary products. It has made a difference to beneficiaries in that co-operation among them no longer depends on personal relations but relies on an institutionalised mechanism. The Center can be considered to have impacted positively all the units of the participating authorities, involved in preventing and fighting smuggling and following the movement of risk goods and cargos.

The practice is very likely to be sustained based on its specific regulation in an act of secondary legislation and the established 24/7 rotation of officers from the authorities involved. The costs are borne by the budgets of the respective institutions. The benefits of joint work are surely to continue as long as the Center exists, but would very much depend on the budget allocated to it. Budgeting and political will to continue co-operation among institutions will be the major factors influencing the sustainability of the response.

The Center is in itself an inclusive, multi-institutional practice where stakeholders are involved in every step of the design and implementation. It is a matter of further analysis whether the stationing of the Center at the GDCOC steers the Center’s work and management towards the priorities of the General Directorate.