OF THE EXECUTIVE AGENCY FOR EXPLORATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE DANUBE RIVER

RUSE, 2007 Г.

The Executive Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River is a legal entity based in Ruse, secondary administrator of budget credits under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Transport and operates in accordance with the Bulgarian Law for Administration, the Law on the Maritime Spaces, Inland Waterways and Ports of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Founding Charter of the Agency and other applicable laws and regulations.

Public services provided by the EA EMRD - Ruse

The activities of the EA EMRD correspond to the international obligations of Bulgaria according to the Belgrade Convention Regarding the Regime of Navigation on the Danube. According to Art. 4 of the Founding Charter of the Agency, it provides services according to national and international law regarding the survey and maintenance of navigational conditions in the inland waterways of the Republic of Bulgaria. Upon the signature of the Belgrade Convention in 1948, Bulgaria became a full member of the Danube Commission. Based on the international obligations arising thereof, the regulations set out in the Founding Charter of the EA EMDR-Ruse define the scope of the Agency’s activities.

These activities are described in Sections 1, 3 and 4 of the Founding Charter, where the Agency’s public status is enshrined with limited reliance on budgetary financing.

Activities of the EA ERDM:

• Ensures safety of navigation in the common Bulgarian-Romanian section of the river via riverbed deepening, diving, trailing and vessel lifting activities for the maintenance of the waterway, the aquatory of the ports and the winter passes;
• Conducts complete hydromorphological and hydrological surveys of the Bulgarian section of the river;
• Collects and disseminates information on the state of the navigational waterway and the hydrometeorological conditions on the river;
• Studies the hydromorphological and hydrological conditions in the area of the Ruse Giurgiu bridge and ensures the safe passage of ships;
• Removes pollution caused by ships;
• Issues guides, navigational maps, plans, yearbooks, reference books and other navigational aids for the purposes of the Danube Commission and the Joint Bulgarian-Romanian commissions;
• Disseminates results of river surveys;
• Alerts the respective authorities, ministries and administrations to the need for precautionary steps in case of foreseeable danger of flooding, bank erosions and others;
• Monitors and approves the position of mining equipment with a view over navigational safety and the possibility of corrosion of banks and islands;

Our main aims are:

• To improve the accessibility of our services by providing detailed information on your rights and the procedures regarding our administrative services ;
• To achieve a high quality of our services by limiting your expense and reducing service delivery times and ensure you always deal with well informed and motivated client relations staff;
• To achieve a high degree of transparency and effectiveness in services by ensuring our representatives are always well-informed and responsive to your specific needs;
• To take immediate action on and encourage any feedback you may have regarding the quality of our services.

To achieve these goals, we take the responsibility to:

• Always treat our clients professionally and respectfully;
• Provide clear, factual, full and accurate information in the way which meets your needs and requirements;
• Provide your services in a way which matches the highest quality of our service standards;
• Ensure you have access to clear, easily accessible feedback methods so you can provide us with your comments, whether positive or negative, regarding the quality of our service.

In return, we ask that you:

• Treat service staff respectfully;
• Provide full and accurate information necessary for the processing of your service request;
• Engage in the feedback process and not hesitate to provide your opinions, suggestions and comments so that we can continue to improve the quality of our services.

You can reach us and receive any information you may need in the following ways:

• By visiting or writing to our head office at 6 Slavyanska St. in Ruse;
• By calling us on our client number: +359 82 823 135;
• You can ask your questions every working day from 8.00 to 16.45.
  Staff will be away from 12.00 to 12.45 o’clock;
• You can find detailed information on our administrative services on our website: http://www.appd-bg.org

We trust that you will not hesitate to express your opinions, suggestions and comments by:

• Calling our client service number +359 82 823 135 or faxing us at +359 82 823 131;
• Sending us a written letter at our mailing address: 6 Slavyanska St. Ruse, addressed to the Administrative, Legal, and Business Services Directorate ;
• Visiting us at our head office;
• Emailing us here
  
• Filling out our customer survey which you can find in our Administrative Office or on our website

Should you have any complaints, we hope that you take the time to notify us.
Our procedures are clear and easily accessible – send your complaint regarding your suspitions of illegal, incorrect, or corrupt conduct of any of our staff to our mailing address, to the Executive Director.
We will complete a full internal investigation and will provide you with a written answer within 30 working days of receipt. If for objective reasons we cannot meet this deadline, we will notify you of the reasons why. We will also let you know in case any additional action is necessary on your side and when you should expect our full reply.
.

It is very important for us to receive your opinions, suggestions, comments and complaints so that we may use them to take concrete and active measures to ensure the constant improvement of the quality of our services. In order to build trust between our Agency and our customers we will publicly announce all measures taken in response to your suggestions or complaints. Our progress reports are published bi-annually on our website at: http://www.appd-bg.org

In our conduct, we are guided by the following legal acts and regulations:

• The Civil Servants' Code of Conduct
• Law for the Administrative Service of Physical and Juridical Persons
• Law of administrative breaches and penalties
• Administrative Procedure Act
• Law of the Administration
• The Law on Access to Public Information
• The Civil Servant’s Act
• The Law for Protection of Private Data
• The Law for the Protection of Classified Information
• Law for complaints, signals, proposals, requests
• State Responsibility for Damage Act

We take responsibility for full regard of your rights set out in the documents described above. To ensure full effectiveness, we expect our clients to fully meet their obligations as described in applicable legislation.

We have a quality and timing standard for all administrative services we provide. We would like to notify you that the time that it may take our staff to correct incomplete or incorrectly filled in information in your documents is not calculated in service times set out in our standards.

WE PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING ADMINISTRATIVE AND TECHNICAL
SERVICES

The Client Charter has been approved by Decree No. 65/01.06.2007 of the Executive Director of the EA EMDR – Ruse