Bulgarian Customs Stage Rally against Forceful Relocation

Experts from the central Sofia office of Bulgaria's Customs Agency announced they are staging a protest rally Thursday.

The rally will be held at 5:30 pm in front of the building of the Finance Ministry.

The Customs employees are opposing the idea of an administrative reform to be implemented in a difficult for the country situation and in violation of their human and civil rights

Speaking Tuesday for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, Stefan Stefanov, Chief Customs Expert, explained that moving the Customs and Customs employees to other cities will cost BGN millions for the State and such forceful relocation was a reminiscence of totalitarian times.

The idea to relocate State institutions is the brainchild of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov. The Customs are scheduled to be first to be relocated. The plan to move them to the Danube city of Ruse might be executed as early as the fall.

In May, over 80% of the Customs employees and those from the National Revenue Agency, NRA, signed a petition against the plan and submitted it with the Council of Ministers.

Customs Chief Vanyo Tanov, also speaking for BNR, said everyone in a democratic country can protest and voice an opinion, but decisions must be grounded in common sense, not emotions.

"I have reiterated many times that the reform is coming a bit too late; it should have happened years ago to give opportunity to young people to find jobs in their hometowns, to boost development of regions. This cannot happen with a magic wand in several years. We need much more time. If we want to have job openings locally, this does not mean we have to create problems for people who work in Sofia by forcefully relocating them because the result will be zero. The move must be made gradually and based on available jobs," Tanov said.

Djankov, on his part, declared brusquely that the plan is already in place and "not everyone is born a Customs employee."