Disciplinary Regulations

This Regulation is an integral part of the By-laws of the Bulgarian Actuarial Society (BAS).

  1. These disciplinary procedures shall be applicable to any and all full and associated members of BAS.
  2. Any violations of the By-laws, the internal regulations and resolutions of the General Meeting, as well as any actions an/or conduct, which may be deemed contradictory to the Professional Ethics Code shall be subject to this Disciplinary Regulation.
  3. Any person or organisation, as well as bodies of the Society, may lodge a claim with the Board of Managers (BM) in respect of the actions under item 2.
  4. Within 5 (five) days from the date of reception the BM shall submit the claim and all supporting documents to the Professional Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (PEDC), for consideration.
  5. Within 15 (fifteen) days from the date of reception the PEDC shall examine the claim and all supporting documents and shall decide whether to proceed with investigation.
  6. Should PEDC comes to the conclusion that the claim in unjustified, it shall submit its written opinion to the BM.
  7. In the event that, as a result of the consideration under item 6 PEDC finds that the claim is justified, PEDC shall appoint an Investigating Commission (IC), consisting of 3 (three) members of PEDC and appoints its Chairman, adhering to the principle of avoiding any actual or possible conflict of interests.
  8. In the event that PEDC fails to appoint 3 of its members, who meet the requirement of the principle of avoiding any actual or possible conflict of interests, BM shall determine the insufficient number of IC with persons among all members of BAS.
  9. The IC shall have competence only when all members are attending the meeting.
  10. When IC is performing its duties, it shall have authority to request any additional documents or written explanations from the two parties.
  11. After examining the submitted materials IC shall set a date for a meeting for the purpose of hearing each party and the parties shall be notified of such meeting no less than 14 days prior to the date of meeting. This limitation may be changed by mutual consent of the parties.
  12. The member under investigation must appear in person and is entitled to use the support of an advisor for his/her own account.
  13. In its activity IC is entitled to the use of a legal advisor for BAS’ account and to request the cooperation of all BAS members.
  14. In the event that the member under investigation fails to appear in person after having been notified twice, the hearing shall be deemed as having taken place.
  15. In case of withdrawal of such claim in the course of the proceedings, IC shall continue its investigation if convinced that there is a violation.
  16. IC’s work shall result in a report, where a motivated opinion shall be given in respect of the presence and character of the perpetrated violation and the guilt of the member under investigation.
  17. PEDC shall consider the report in a closed session with all members attending and shall make decision on the guilt of the member under investigation.
  18. In the event that the member under investigation is found guilty, PEDC shall determine one of the following penalties in accordance with the character of violation and the availability of previous violations of the member under investigation:
    a) personal warning;
    b) public censure in front of the General Meeting;
    c) temporary suspension of membership of a specified period, but for no more than one year.
    d) expulsion from BAS
  19. Penalties under letters (a) and (b) of the preceding Article shall be imposed by PEDC and may be appealed by the penalised member according to the procedure of Articles 23-27 of this Disciplinary Regulation.
  20. If PEDC decide that the character of the perpetrated violation requires punishment under Art. 18, letters (a) and (b), PEDC shall make a motivated proposal to the General Meeting for imposing penalty and shall submit it to the BM.
  21. The report and the decision for imposing penalty under Art. 18, letters (a) and (b), or the proposal for punishment under Art. 18, letters (c) and (d), shall be submitted to the BM.
  22. BM shall notify the two parties of the PEDC decision within five days.
  23. If the PEDC decision imposes penalty under Art. 18, letters (a) and (b), the two parties shall be entitled to lodge a written appeal before BM within 14 days from the date of receiving the decision.
  24. BM shall examine the appeal within 30 days and, if necessary, shall consult PEDC, shall hear the two parties and will make a final decision.
  25. As a result of the appeal procedure BM may confirm, amend or revoke the PEDC decision.
  26. The BM decision shall not be subject to any appeal.
  27. The BM shall notify the two parties in respect of its decision within 5 days.
  28. In the event that the penalty is “public censure in front of the General Meeting”, BM shall notify the BAS members at the following General Meeting.
  29. BM shall convene an extraordinary General Meeting and shall prepare a motivated opinion to the General Meeting in cases where:
    a) PEDC has adopted a motion of the General Meeting for imposing penalty “temporary suspension of membership” or “expulsion from BAS”.
    b) following an appeal on the part of the claimant against the PEDC decision for imposing penalty according to the procedure of Art. 23-27, BM resolves that the penalty should be under Art. 18, letters (c) or (d).
  30. The decision on imposing penalty “temporary suspension of membership” or “expulsion from BAS” shall be made by the General Meeting after hearing the PEDC motivated motions and/or BM opinion and of the member under investigation, if the latter requests so. The decision shall be adopted after a secret ballot by simple majority of the attending BAS members.
  31. In the event that the General Meeting does not accept the PEDC motion and/or BM opinion for imposing penalty under Art. 18, letters (c) or (d), the General Meeting shall, at its sole discretion, impose a lighter penalty.
  32. The decision on imposing penalty shall be displayed on the Society’s web-page. The expelled member shall be notified as to the decision on his/her membership in the Society within 7 (seven) days from the date of the decision of the General Meeting.
  33. In the event that the General Meeting imposes penalty “temporary suspension of membership” the penalty term shall begin as from the date on which the General Meeting has adopted the decision and from which date the penalised member shall be deemed automatically relieved from any and all positions he may have been appointed to in the BAS bodies. The penalised member’s membership rights, with the exception of any and all positions he may have been appointed to in the BAS bodies, shall automatically be restored to him after expiry of the penalty term. After expiry of the penalty term the penalised member may again be elected to positions in the BAS bodies on an equal footing.
  34. All procedures, as well as written and verbal information, related to the disciplinary process, shall be confidential. BM reserves its right to publicly announce any and all related facts, if confidentiality is violated and the party affected by such violation requests it or there is a mutual consent between the parties for breaking confidentiality.

Additional provisions
§ 1. In the meaning of this Regulation “member under investigation” shall be a BAS member, for whom, following a lodged claim is stated, that such member has performed violation under Art. 2.

§ 2. In the meaning of this Regulation “parties” to the investigation shall be: the member under investigation and the person or organisation – claimant.