| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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• With a successful project under Operational Programme Administrative Capacity and a grant contract concluded for the implementation of 7 activities:
ACTIVITY 1: Project organisation and management
The project organisation and management is provided by staff members of the Registry Agency. After the signature of the project implementation contract, civic contracts are signed with the team members. Detailed descriptions of the obligations and responsibilities (assignments) are elaborated for each position and attached to the contracts. The project team provides ongoing monitoring and control on the implementation of the project activities during the project implementation period.
ACTIVITY 2: Analysis of the ongoing situation of the Commercial Register’s information system, the degree of conformity of the proposed functionality with the legislative requirements and preparing terms of reference for developing and optimizing the information system of the Commercial Register;
ACTIVITY 3: Improving and upgrading the information system of the Commercial Register and adapting it to the requirements of the Bulgarian legislation. The activity involves implementation of the following sub-activities:
1. Enhancing the functionality of the Bankruptcy section;
2. Enhancing the functionality for data exchange with subscribers of the Commercial Register’s information system;
3. Designing an English-language public interface of the Commercial Register;
4. enhancing the existing functionality by adding an option to the public section for identification of launched transformation proceedings;
5. Designing a new functionality for establishing administrative violations and imposing administrative punishments;
6. Ensuring connectivity and automatic data exchange between the information systems of the Commercial Register and the Property Register;
7. Designing new references and filters:
Design and implement all currently unavailable references required by the regulations and references about refusals issued by the Registry Agency and court acts repealing refusals;
8. Optimizing the quality parameters of the Commercial Register’s information system;
9. “Delivery, configuring, installation and testing of servers for the Commercial Register’s information system”. This sub-activity envisages delivery, configuring, installation and testing of 8 servers. The new servers will add to the existing configuration, distributing and lowering the load and minimizing the risk of collapse or disturbance of the normal operation of the system;
10. Developing the content of a brochure on the operation of the Commercial Register’s information system;
11. Organising training for administrators of the Commercial Register’s information system – on-site training will be provided by the Registry Agency to the administrators supporting the information system of the Commercial Register.
ACTIVITY 4: Designing a guide for issuing refusals to enter in the Commercial Register – the guide aims to improve the quality of administrative support of citizens and of the business by enhancing the competence of the registration staff. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of refusals issued for immaterial reasons and the number of appeals lodged against the decisions.
ACTIVITY 5 and ACTIVITY 6: “Ensuring information, publicity and logistics during trainings to work with the new functionality of the Commercial Register’s information system and for use of the designed guide for issuing refusals to enter”;
This activity includes several sub-activities:
• Preparing training programmes;
• Designing training materials and training plans;
• Providing general two-day trainings to work with the new functionality of the Commercial Register’s information system for 2 groups of clerical staff and 3 groups of registration staff (RS);
• Providing two-day trainings to work with the guide for issuing refusals to enter;
• Information about the objectives pursued by the project will be provided to all stakeholders and to the general public within the information and publicity activity. This activity will present the interim and final outcomes of the project. Information about the financial contribution of the EU to the project implementation and about the role of ESF and OPAC in improving the quality of service for the citizens and the business and about e-service development will be disseminated within the activity.
ACTIVITY 7: Project audit – this activity is necessary in order to ensure the lawful and proper spending of the funds in compliance with the requirements of ESF, OPAC and the Bulgarian legislation.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Interested stakeholders involved in the implementation include:
The business
The business is the main user of the services provided by the Registry Agency (RA). The Commercial Register (CR) kept and administered by RA is one of the main tools for entry, storage, processing and provision of up-to-date information about the Bulgarian traders and the branches of foreign traders. All registrable acts relating to the traders and the branches of foreign traders are stored in the Commercial Register and on their basis references are made, certificates are issued and transcripts are made. According to the Commercial Register Act every trader is obligated to request entry into CR. The Commercial Register is public and this enhances the security of business transactions.
The staff of the Registry Agency – the registration and clerical staff responsible for keeping the Commercial Register
The registration and clerical staff are employees of the Registry Agency who have primary responsibility for keeping the Commercial Register on an ongoing basis.
The registration staff (RS) has the following functions and responsibilities in the Commercial Register keeping process: examine the applications for entry of traders, branches, foreign traders and the related circumstances; examine the entry applications of traders, branches of foreign traders and related circumstances; examine the legality of the entry of traders and related circumstances; make other verifications and exercise control of the content and legality of the submitted documents. The registration staff are members of the RD Directorate which is part of the specialized administration of RA. Currently the total number of the staff in the directorate is 85 persons; 12 other registration staff members are to be appointed in the next months.
The clerical staff has the following functions in the Commercial Register keeping process: accept and enter in the information system of CR the applications for entry, deletion and disclosures in CR, for reservation of company names; make references and issue certificates for the circumstances entered and the acts disclosed in CR; scan files of re-registered companies, sign documents with electronic signature, etc. The clerical staff are members of Directorate General “Registers” which is part of the specialized administration of RA. The directorate general has 12 regional directorates comprising registry services and registration offices staffed with clerical staff.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The project costs amount to BGN 1 152 719,94, which have been paid by the Registry Agency to each one of the contractors under the contracts concluded pursuant to the Public Procurement Act. The amount is to be verified by the Managing Authority of Operational Programme “Administrative Capacity”, Ministry of Finance.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The project activities satisfied the identified needs of the target groups; the improvement and upgrading of the Commercial Register’s information system and its adaptation to the requirements of the Bulgarian legislation improved the quality of services and contributed to compliance with the Bulgarian legislation.
The improved Bankruptcy section of the Commercial Register’s information system has helped the users of the respective service to obtain accurate, clear and complete information and has reduced the service time for the business and the citizens because the references requested are generated automatically by electronic means.
The developed “Subscription for occurring changes by account and by section” module of the data interface between the information system and its subscribers has improved the quality of the administrative support of the business and the citizens that have subscribed for the respective service.
The English translation of the Commercial Register’s public section interface facilitates its use by the nationals of EU Member States and third countries and makes possible the generation of e-references in English without a need to file an application to receive the requested information on paper carrier.
The designed new functionality for establishment of administrative violations made by the business and other stakeholders and for imposing administrative punishments will improve the control for compliance with deadlines and with the other requirements regarding the Commercial Register laid down in the regulations.
The communication ensured between the systems of the Commercial Register and the Property Register with a view to automatic data exchange between them, as well as the overall optimization of the information system of the Commercial Register with a view to improving the speed, security, fail-safe feature and the other qualitative parameters of the system resulted in reduced service provision time and facilitated work of the registration and clerical staff.
In order to reduce the number of issued refusals to enter and the complaints lodged against decisions of the Registry Agency in court, actions have been taken within the project to improve the quality of the decisions issued by the officials in the Registry Agency and to raise the awareness of the business about the most common errors made when filing applications.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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On one part, the project implementation and progress is strictly monitored by the Beneficiary (the Registry Agency) through the project management team and the financial controller in the Registry Agency. The Managing Authority of Operational Programme “Administrative Capacity” examines and controls the implementation of all project activities and verifies the payments made under the project, accordingly.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The main obstacles are connected with the procedures under the Public Procurement Act and are due mainly to the time limits set for the organisation of the procedures and with the possible appeal which could delay the project implementation.
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