The Ministry is headed by the Minister of Interior Affairs. The position is considered a power appointment and in the modern Bulgarian history the Minister is also a Deputy Prime Minister. The Deputy Ministers and a Parliament Secretary form his Political Cabinet along with the Chief of the Political Cabinet. The professional head of the Ministry's operational agencies is the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior. This is simultaneously a position and the highest officer rank within the Ministry. The role and rank of the Chief Secretary is similar to those of the Chief of Defence within the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence. Three times Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has started his political career after his tenure as Chief Secretary. The head of the Ministry's civil servants is the Administrative Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, responsible for human resources, budget planning, real estates of the Ministry, public relations etc. The rest of organisations within the Ministry are directly subordinated to the Minister. Bulgaria is a unitary statecomposed of28 provinces - the capital city of Sofia and 27 oblasts. The agencies within the Ministry are organised at national level under the Chief Secretary. There is also an Oblast Directorate of the Ministry of Interior Affairs within each of the provinces. The only exception is the city of Sofia. Due to its status as the nation's capital, economic powerhouse, most highly and densely populated city and for traditional reasons the Sofia equivalent of the 27 ODMVRs is actually called SDVR, which stands for Capital Directorate for Interior Affairs. These regional departments are also ultimately subordinated to the Chief Secretary. The 27 ODMVRs range in manpower from about 400 to a little over 1 900 police officers and civil servants. They are dwarfed by the SDVR of the capital Sofia with its almost 5 100 police officers and civil servants.
The SOBT is the country's premier counter-terror unit. It consists of roughly 150 operatives and staff and support personnel. It is located near the former royal residence in the Vrana area at the outskirts of the capital Sofia. The Force is directly subordinated to the Minister and engages in the most complicated cases. Most of the other agencies within the ministry have their own SWAT teams and the occasions in which the SOBT has been deployed in operations have decreased in the 21st century. The Force trains regularly with the special forces of the Bulgarian Army, the SWAT teams of the Sofia Police Department, the Main Directorate "Combat Against The Organised Crime", the Gendarmery, the Border Police and teams of the Attorney General's Office, as well as similar foreign CT units, such as the French RAID, the German GSG 9 etc.
Main Directorate "National Police"
The Main Directorate "National Police" is the nations's primary law enforcement organisation. It includes various services, such as Security Police, Criminal Police, Transport Police, Traffic Police etc. It also includes the Gendarmery Directorate as its main militarised arm for riot control, security of critical infrastructure of national importance, such as nuclear power plants, ports, pipelines, foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in the Republic of Bulgaria. The National Police is organised in central departments under the Main Directorate in Sofia and 28 provincial departments. The Gendarmery does not follow that model, instead it is organised in a small central apparatus and 8 Zonal Gendarmery Departments, covering multiple provinces.
Main Directorate "Combat Against The Organised Crime"
The Main Directorate is tasked with the prevention of serious crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, abductions etc. Due to its purpose it is also colloquially known as the anti-Mafia service.
Main Directorate "Border Police"
The Main Directorate "Border Police" is responsible for the security of the border crossings and the prevention of illegal entering of the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. The service does not carry law enforcement tasks in the interior of the country, however, operating highly sophisticated land-based surveillance equipment, helicopters and sea and riverine patrol craft, the Border Police is regularly engaged in search and rescue operations for missing persons and pursuit of dangerous criminals in a supporting capacity.
**Bezmer Base - helicopters on temporary deployment from Sofia Base
Main Directorate "Fire Safety and Civil Protection"
The Main Directorate is responsible for fire-fighting, reaction to natural disasters, emergency situations and rescue operations. The Civil Protection portfolio was for a long time under the Ministry of Defence. The Stanishev Government has combined the MIA's fire-fighting service, the MoD's civil protection service and the wartime stocks agency of the Council of Ministers into a new "mega" Ministry of Emergency Situations. The new ministry was later dissolved, with the fire fighters returning under the MIA and the wartime stocks administration returning to the oversight of the Council of Ministers. Civil Protection was retained merged with the Fire Protection Service and joined the MIA. The Main Directorate consists of departments directly under the DIrector of the service and 28 territorial departments.
