All 14 projects were developed in accordance with the priority objectives of the Coalition 2000 Clean Future Awareness Campaign. They also incorporated original ideas proposed by the Coalition 2000 local partners. The projects contained a number of common components:

• An awareness component as part of the Coalition 2000 Clean Future awareness campaign;
• Corruption monitoring at municipal level;
• Establishing local or regional anti-corruption structures;
• Generating proposals for methods to increase the quality of public services and for curbing corruption practices.

Local projects were implemented in close cooperation with the Coalition 2000 Secretariat, whose experts took part in a number of anti-corruption activities in the ten towns, included in the project.

The work of the Coalition 2000 local partners has produced the following results:

1. A long-term result of the pilot projects has been the creation of local/regional anti-corruption structures modeled on the public-private partnership established at national level by Coalition 2000. Some of those structures have been established at municipal level, such as in the town of Plovdiv, while others (in Smolian, Shoumen, and Razgrad) have a regional or a district scope. Anti-corruption structures have been joined by representatives of municipal administration and regional authorities, of non-governmental organizations, journalists, and civic activists.

The establishment of local anti-corruption structures could become the first step towards the development of a nation-wide anti-corruption structure in which the individual local/regional centers will be connected with each other, as well as with the Coalition 2000 Secretariat, and will have the opportunity to coordinate and complement their activities.

2. The local government “Transparency Matrix,” developed by Coalition 2000, helped with locating the “gray areas” in local bureaucracy where corruption was most commonly encountered. Information about corrupt practices was received through other methods as well (questionnaires, interviews, telephone surveys, etc.) The experience so far has proven the importance of monitoring of public services at municipal/regional level.

3. Practical actions to curb corruption. Most of the Coalition 2000 local partners have established reception desks and/or telephone hotlines to collect testimonies of corrupt practices. Mediation groups have been set up in the towns of Lyaskovets and Pleven with the purpose of offering a free-of-charge legal advice to victims of corruption pressure.

Another important anti-corruption practice has been the publication of brochures informing citizens about their rights and about services provided by local administration. Thus, the Association of Young Lawyers has published a “Civic Handbook on Administrative Services” (designed specifically for the citizens of Lyaskovets) and is currently working on a similar publication for the municipality of Pleven.

4. Awareness-Raising Activity

Local media demonstrated a significant interest in the anti-corruption initiative of Coalition 2000. In some place, such as Smolian, journalists and media managers became part of anti-corruption structures. In other places, like Shoumen and Razgrad, meetings with local media directors were held.

Six information days were organized by the Coalition local partners within the framework of the small grants project. In several places special anti-corruption events directed at high-school and university students took place: poster and cartoon competitions in the towns of Vratsa and Rousse, essay competitions in Razgrad, etc.

As a whole, the activities of Coalition 2000 local partners generated more than 120 hundreds articles in the local press and approximately 35 TV and radio reports.

5. Proposals for Reforms

Proposals for reforms in the legal framework intended to curb corrupt practices were made by some of the local NGOs, such as the Black Sea Law Community, which is staffed by experienced legal professionals.

6. Next steps

The following general recommendations can be made with regards to the further implementation of small grant projects:

• Local organizations within the Coalition 2000 process should be encouraged to create permanent anti-corruption structures, such as Regional/Municipal Anti-Corruption Councils, in association with representatives of other non-governmental organizations, local government, journalists, businessmen, students, etc. Together with the already established structures they would help to create a nation-wide anti-corruption network.
• It would be advisable for these councils to adopt their own Anti-Corruption Action Plans and to organize anti-corruption activities covering as many aspects of the phenomenon as possible: corruption monitoring, assistance to victims of corruption, cooperation with the authorities responsible for investigation of corrupt practices, participation in the development of measures for curbing corruption, as well as vigorous public actions designed to reduce society’s tolerance to corruption. To achieve this, the use of anti-corruption instruments/structures, such as mediation groups, telephone hotlines, post office box to collect testimonies of corrupt practices, etc., is recommended.
• The Coalition local partners should use changes in local government expected after local elections this autumn and make specific proposals for cooperation with the newly elected representatives of local authorities aimed at enhancing transparency and openness in the work of local government.