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Can Private Enforcement Agents Help the State Collect Claims More Effectively?
19.Sep.2007
Deputy Minister of Finance Kiril Jelev and the Director of the State Receivables Collection Agency Ventsislava Petkova share their experience with collection of claims.Deputy Minister of Finance Kiril Jelev and the Director of the State Receivables Collection Agency Ventsislava Petkova share their experience with collection of claims.
The Law on Private Enforcement Agents, adopted two years ago with USAID technical assistance through the Commercial Law Reform Program (CLRP), entitles government collection agencies to use the services of the new profession to collect public claims. Currently, the total amount of public claims exceeds 2 billion Bulgarian leva. In spite of this, assignment of collection to private agents is still sporadic. One of the few pioneers is the State Receivables Collection Agency, which has assigned 100 cases to 10 private enforcement agents since September 2006.

On September 19 the USAID CLRP conducted a discussion with government representatives to discuss the possibilities of effective use of private enforcement agents in collecting public claims.

Experts at the roundtable cited the lack of clear procedure for selecting private enforcement agents and the need to pay advance fees for their services as the main obstacles.

Georgi Sabev, moderator of the meeting, summarizes the problems in collecting public claims through private enforcement agentsGeorgi Sabev, moderator of the meeting, summarizes the problems in collecting public claims through private enforcement agents.
The participants were unanimous that the new profession should be used more often to increase efficiency in collecting public claims. They proposed a draft procedure for assigning cases to private enforcement agents by government collection agencies. The participants also agreed to solicit the views of the National Audit Chamber and the Agency for Internal Financial Control, whose positive reaction may lead to a breakthrough in the use of private enforcement agents.