Thirty-four public administration employees were dismissed for corruption in the first half of 2007, five were suspended, eight were appointed elsewhere, 77 disciplinary proceedings were instituted, 15 cases were reported to the prosecuting magistrates, and sentences against two employees became effective, the government information service said Thursday.

The government discussed a report on the implementation of a strategy for transparent governance and prevention and fight against corruption in the first half of 2007, and approved a program for implementation of the strategy in the second half of the year, BTA reports.

The report submitted by Interior Minister Roumen Petkov, Chairman of the Commission for Prevention and Fight against Corruption, contains collated information on the performance of 140 tasks listed in the strategy.

Most ministries have hotlines, portals and mailboxes to which irregularities can be reported. For instance, the Interior Ministry had 5,507 calls on its hotlines between January and June, of which 48 contained specific corruption-related information. The Ministry's website registered 370 tip-offs, of which 104 were about corruption. Ninety-five tip-offs were about Interior Ministry officers and were followed by probes.

The Customs Agency processed over 600 case files between January and June. It conducted 162 checks and internal investigations on tip-offs and complaints, instituted 37 disciplinary proceedings against customs officers and imposed 35 disciplinary punishments, including nine dismissals.

Twenty disciplinary proceedings were instituted against revenue administration employees, 20 were dismissed and six cases were reported to the prosecuting magistracy.

Prosecuting magistracy data show that 1,706 corruption-related pre-trial proceedings were completed between the end of 2006 and February 2007, and 599 prosecution acts were submitted to court. A total of 427 people were sentenced, 297 sentences became effective and 129 people were acquitted. Those indicted include three municipal mayors, a head of department in the Customs administration, customs inspectors, etc.

The program for implementation of the strategy for transparent governance and fight against corruption until the end of 2007 envisages measures for corruption prevention in customs control and the revenue administration.