All donations received by the Interior Ministry will be stored on electronic or paper records for a period of five years, according to newly approved internal rules and regulations.

The new document, prepared by a working group of the Interior Ministry, sets out the procedure for signing donation contracts, for keeping records in the donation registry, for exercising control over donations and lists permissible types of donations.

The rules are aimed at creating transparent and accountable procedures for accepting and managing donations so as to prevent embezzlement and preserve "the good reputation and the property interests of the Interior Ministry".

According to the newly adopted paper, all Bulgarian and foreign natural and legal persons are eligible for donors to the Interior, excluding convicted persons and ones involved in criminal proceedings.

The Interior Ministry is allowed to accept donations of movable property, money, services, intellectual property rights and securities.

Anonymous donations are not allowed, as well as morally and ethically unacceptable donations, ones that presuppose material or non-material gifts and favors in return or ones that could "obstruct the execution of key tasks and activities of the Interior".

The introduction of the new requirements comes after media announcements that Bulgaria's Interior Ministry received a total of BGN 6 512 714 from private sponsors in the first quarter of 2011.

In the meantime, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov insisted that donations were not reprehensible because they did not imply any commitment on the part of the Ministry.

According to Tsvetanov, a large part of the donations is motivated by the excellent work of the police.

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