Bulgaria’s PM orders: Get BG-Alert system working

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov issued an order on April 30 to five ministries and several departments to get the BG-Alert system to work properly “or there will be no forgiveness”.

The BG-Alert system, involving emergency messages to mobile phones about disaster situations, was launched in 2023 but has attracted controversy because of incidents in which emergencies occurred but no signals were received.

There have been tests of the system, but large numbers of subscribers received on message, for which those in charge of the system blamed the subscribers for not setting the systems of their phones to receive the test messages. There have been reassurances that receiving a message in the event of a real emergency does not require specially setting a phone to do so.

Zhelyazkov, speaking at the start of a regular meeting of the Cabinet, pointed to the lack of an announcement of danger during recent floods in parts of Bulgaria.

“Once again, we find that systems that are built with public funds, due to certain departmental or other considerations, do not work when the time, place and occasion are right,” Zhelyazkov said.

“I want, within 10 days, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of E-government, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Energy, together with the participants in the National Association of Municipalities, Agency for Combating Hail, to present a plan and, if necessary, changes to the regulation for BG-Alert, so that this system, which is built, functioning and good, can work,” he said.

“Governance is a synthesis of sharing information and systems, there is no way to feudalize any system and have everyone keep information for themselves, and there is no way a system that has been built can turn out that people have not been trained to work with it.”

This was a reference to reports that only a small number of municipalities have been trained to work with the system.

He said that this cannot be an excuse either for mayors or district governors.

“Ten days colleagues – after that there is no forgiveness,” he addressed the ministers.

Earlier on April 30, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov sent a letter to Interior Minister Daniel Mitov and to the Director of the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Population Protection, Chief Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov, requesting them to carry out inspections regarding the condition and functioning of the BG-Alert system in order to protect the public interest.

Sarafov’s letter said that in recent years Bulgaria has been affected by a number of disasters – floods, extreme temperatures, storms, fires, and so on, which have taken human lives and caused significant damage to both the infrastructure in the field of energy, water resources, and industry, agriculture, livelihoods and property of people, which raises concerns regarding the provision of a sustainable and safe living environment for the population.

“Given the recent increase in earthquakes in the neighbouring Republic of Turkey, in the Sea of Marmara region, which were also felt on the territory of our country, our society is expressing concern about the condition and functioning of the the BG-Alert system for distributing warning messages to the population,” Sarafov’s letter said.

The Inspectorate should verify the coordination, improvement of interaction, dialogue and sharing of information about the risk with all relevant state and local authorities, relevant to taking adequate actions to protect the life and health of citizens and reduce property damage caused by earthquakes and other emergencies.

He requested information on the results of the inspection, including established violations, actions taken to eliminate them and specific measures to ensure timely information to the population in case of disaster risks.

If there is evidence of crimes committed, the guilty parties will be held criminally liable, the Prosecutor’s Office said.

(Photo of Zhelyazkov: government.bg)

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