The detention facility located in Sofia on „Major Vekilski” Street where detainees under cases to be considered by the specialized courts are housed has been generally renovated. This has led to overcrowding in detention facility located at „G.M. Dimitrov„ Blvd. and to the inability to close the detention facility in Slivnitsa, which is underground. By a decision of 8 September 2010 the Council of Ministers adopted a new programme for improvement of conditions in detention facilities as well as the Action Plan for implementation of the programme in 2013, which provides the following: - Reconstruction into a detention facility of the building of a former hospital located in the prison in the city of Lovech; - Construction of a new detention facility by way of reconstruction and rehabilitation of a former building of the Traffic Police - Gabrovo; - Construction of a new detention facility and probation service through remodeling and reconstruction of buildings run by the military base in the city of Shumen whih has been closed down. Measures are being implemented and for the necessary activities to be carried out are provided 3,100,000 Bulgarian levs. The NPM found out that in 2012 no expenses were made for building activities under the programme. There are numerous problems related to the improvement of living conditions in the detention facilities. An example is the lack of regulations on state-owned buildings of the regional directorates „Police” with the Ministry of Interior, which house detention facilities. This prevents the coordination of architectural projects for the reconstruction of detention facilities with technical departments of the local municipalities. This is the case in Yambol, which has led to an inability to utilize the allocated funds for reconstruction. As established by the NPM, a prerequisite for overcrowded detention facilities is the practice of moving prisoners in custody for cunducting preliminary proceedings from a prison or a dormitory located in the same city. Provision of art. 250 of the LIPSD does not require assessing whether such an investigative action can be performed by sending on an official trip the body performing the procedural action, or convoy activity and related actions thereto should be done on transferring and reception of detainees, repeated searches, etc. The NPM team has been able to establish a case in Sliven concerning a transfer of six persons from the prison in Sliven into the detention facility in the same town for one day. The reason was that these people need to be questioned as witnesses. Control over the legality and appropriateness of such instruments is beyond the powers of the NPM and should be done by the prosecutors supervising the detention facilities. It should be noted the positive effect of the prosecutor's supervision over the detention facilities, as in most of the cases there were no people with criminal proceedings pending more than six months due to their timely transfer to prison until the trial in the court. The existing facilities make it impossible to respect the rights of the detainees. Upon admitting them into the detention facility a diagnostic evaluation and a risk assessment of the detainee and the initial medical examination should be conducted. A plan to reduce the risk is to be prapared. 19 Annual Report of the National Preventive Mechanism | OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA