Less than 12% of officers are involved in investigating, policing and countering crime

Bulgaria spends the most money of its gross domestic product on police and security compared to all other EU countries. The figures range from 0.7% in Ireland to 2.5% in Bulgaria.

Another statistic shows that more than 88% of those employed in the Ministry of the Interior are neither involved in investigations, nor in the protection of public order, nor in countering criminal offences.

The author of the analysis is Zornitsa Slavova from the Institute for Market Economics. In her words, each territorial structure of the Interior Ministry maintains its own administration, which largely duplicates the activities of the central one.

"What is even more shocking is that despite the constantly growing budget in our country, 90% of it goes to salaries. However, the employees in the field do not have high salaries or good working conditions," Slavova added.