Tbilisi. With the financial support of the European Union (EU), Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) is implementing the project “Monitoring Covid-19 related public spending and human rights protection during the state of emergency and after". "The initiative is contributing to increasing government accountability regarding Covid-19-related public spending, implementation of the Government Anti-Crisis Plan, spending of StopCov Fund, and allocation of donor support.  This document is an interim report that includes an overview of activities carried out through March-December 2020, monitoring results, and recommendations”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia has studied the National Plan for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment document within the limits of its competence and found that the plan does not include any corruption-related risk assessment or measures against dishonest actions. In order to lower corruption risks in the process of immunization, it is necessary to: Add a component of/section on integrity to the national plan for vaccine deployment; Introduce a mechanism for reporting and responding to violations related to the immunization process; Add an integrity component to the training program provided for by the immunization plan; Conduct the process of immunization in conformity with the principle of complete transparency, so that representatives of civil society and any concerned citizen have the opportunity to observe the process. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Educational Certification Program in Fighting Corruption was started in June, 2019 and is implemented by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) for the third year in a row. „The Program is implemented in cooperation with Ilia State University. The first phase of the Program consisted of eight professional modules. The participants who were passed the modules successfully received certificates. Up to 500 applicants expressed their willingness to participate in the Program out of which 32 participants were selected for the Program. Out of the initial 32 participants (which were selected among almost 500 candidates), 19 participants received the final certificates. It is noteworthy that the final certificates are awarded to the candidates who have passed at least six modules. Out of 19 participants, 5 participants received certificates for graduating from all eight modules. Among these five – four are female, and one is male. Out of 19 participants – 16 are female, and 3 are male”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Secretariat of the Interagency Coordination Council to Combat Corruption has launched the renewal of the Anti-Corruption Strategy and elaboration of 2021-2022 Action Plan. IDFI hopes that the work on the Anti-Corruption Action Plan and Strategy will be productive, the ambitious commitments needed for the progress will be considered and the strategic documents will be approved in a timely manner. IDFI calls on the authorities involved in the development of Anti-Corruption strategic documents to fully comply with the recommendations that are crucial for the prevention of corruption in the country. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by Transparency International Georgia, the Committee on Legal Affairs considered it inappropriate for the Parliament of the 10th convocation to review a legislative package on the Anti-Corruption Agency, initiated by the Parliament of previous convocation. “This decision of the committee indicates that the ruling party lacks political will to take important steps towards improvement of anti-corruption legislation and practice of the country, as well as establishment of an effective system for fighting against corruption. We call on the Parliament of Georgia to continue working on this legislative initiative, adoption of which will facilitate solution of corruption related problems in Georgia and serve as an important step towards establishing an effective anti-corruption system in the country”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia studied 10 Georgian private companies that received the most money from simplified (direct) public procurement in 2020. Due to the organization’s information, Last year, all 10 companies received contracts worth a total of GEL 165 million. “Out of 10 companies, 6 are donors of the Georgian Dream and its supported presidential candidate, Salome Zurabishvili. The owners and/or directors of these companies donated a total of GEL 668,000 to the ruling party and Salome Zurabishvili in 2016-2020. In addition, two companies (In-Si LLC and Anagi LLC) are involved in Bidzina Ivanishvili's Co-Investment Fund projects. These 6 companies received a total of GEL 54 million through direct public procurement contracts in 2020, and GEL 149 million in 2013-2020”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Stone LLC owned by the former head of Architecture Service of Kobuleti municipality - Badri Romanadze received GEL 24 647 168 from Kobuleti municipality procurements during 2015-2020 - GEL 6 million without a competition. “Suspicious circumstances were also revealed in the procurements of Poti and Terjola municipalities, in 2020 the company won 4 procurements by offering the lowest bid, however, the value of contracts was more (GEL 3,074,239) than the highest bids offered to the buyer by competitors. We call on the Anti-Corruption Department of State Security Service to start the investigation on the aforementioned facts immediately”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. In parallel with Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index, the organization's Berlin Secretariat website is published in the article, as it will be intensively reviewed at this stage. The organization offers a Georgian translation of this article: “Georgia’s score of 56 points in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is unchanged from 2019, when it dropped by two points compared with 2018. Moreover, Georgia has not seen significant improvement in the ranking since 2012, when CPI scores became comparable year to year. In a country once celebrated as a reformer, anti-corruption efforts have stagnated in nearly a decade”. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. TI Georgia published Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 by that, as the organization said, the main problems of Georgia’s anti-corruption policy remain unresolved.  “Georgia has been assigned a score of 56 and shares 45th place with Poland and Saint Lucia in the 2020 edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which was published by the Transparency International Secretariat today and ranks 180 countries. In the ranking, 100 points indicate the lowest level of perceived corruption while 0 – its highest level”, - is mentioned in the information, TI spared. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. TI Georgia has studied the issues of parliamentary election campaign finances from September 1 to November 17, 2020. In addition, it analyzed the donations received by political parties in more depth and reviewed the trends highlighted in this regard since January 1, 2020.  By the organization, out of nine election subjects that received at least 1% of the votes, one subject (Girchi) did not submit the completed financial statements to the SAO. Therefore, the findings of the report are mainly based on the analysis of the financial declarations submitted by 8 election subjects.  Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. According to Transparency International Georgia, changes, to be made to legislation on elections and political parties, do not meet democratic standards. “We consider that the major part of proposed changes to the rule of funding of parties is contrary to European standards of state funding of parties and, on illegitimate grounds, will heavily affect financial situation of opposition parties, which fact is going to have negative impact on political pluralism and a competitive political environment. At the same time, cancellation of election registration for an election subject due to participation of an unauthorized person in the election campaign is a disproportionately severe sanction and carries a great risk of using it for political purposes”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes an overview of the anti-crisis plan. The organization, with the support of the European Union (EU), implements the “Monitoring of COVID-19 related costs and protection of human rights during and after the state of emergency” project. “One of the main goals of the project is to monitor implementation of the anti-crisis plan of the Government of Georgia and effectiveness of measures taken within the framework of it. The present report contains an overview of the primary anti-crisis plan of Georgia in the circumstances of the pandemic and its implementation as of December 2020”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. On 30 November, the Government of Georgia (GoG) submitted to the Parliament the final version of the draft law On the 2021 State Budget which differs considerably from the version submitted on 5 November. The significant changes in the draft budget were caused by including in the budget the factors related to the coronavirus pandemic. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has prepared a brief evaluation and recommendations on the final draft budget. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has begun systematic gathering of information on high-level alleged corruption related violations that have been revealed in recent years and left without adequate response.  “Our goal is to create a periodically updatable information resource that allows us to track these violations and observe the real scale of high-level corruption. In recent years, there has been revealed a high-level so-called “elite” corruption and improper response to it as one of the main challenges for Georgia in terms of corruption. Conclusions of local civil society, evaluations of international organizations, results of a number of global ratings and public opinion surveys, conducted in Georgia, indicate existence and severity of this problem”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes the research report on Forms of Narrow Specialisations in Georgian Common Court System.  „Legal disputes in Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals are narrowly specialised in all spheres. According to the official explanation, narrow specializations help judges in time management and case administration. However, unfortunately, in many cases, specialization is created without justification. Furthermore creating a specialization, among other problems, increases the risk of manipulating the distribution of cases“. Read more…  Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia's (TI Georgia) observation of the parliamentary elections from July 1, November 22, 2020 showed that the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes is still problematic for Georgia. Ineffective investigation of violence, the politicization of public institutions, including election commissions, and mobilization of the employees of budgetary organizations by the ruling party for election campaigns, the use of investigative agencies to discredit political opponents, and other vicious tendencies remain unchanged from election to election. Read more…  Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Take a look at the Presentation of an interim alternative monitoring report on the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Action Plan for 2019-2020.  On December 23, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) together with the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) presented results of an alternative monitoring report on the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Action Plan (PAR) for the first six months of 2020. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association submitted its comments in regard to amendments to the Law on Political Associations of Citizens to the Parliament. “Suspension of state funding for parties in accordance with a draft, initiated by the ruling team, is perceived by the organization as an arbitrary punishment inflicted by the Government on the opposition. GYLA calls on the Parliament to take into account goals and destination of state funding for parties, prevent appearance of those norms in the legislation, which are unjustified and disproportionately limit political parties, as well as refrain from adoption of the submitted bill”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Rondeli Foundation, with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, implemented the study – “Impact of Anti-Pandemic Restrictions and Government Anti-Crisis Measures on Employment, Incomes and the Poverty Level in Georgia”. The study discusses the peculiarities of the pandemic economic crisis in Georgia. Based on the simulation analysis, an assessment of the expected impact of anti-pandemic restrictions and government anti-crisis measures on employment, income and poverty levels for the period 2020-2021 was prepared. Check out the full research down bellow…  Source: www.gfsis.org

Tbilisi. EMC believes that the Short-term and long-term effects of the second wave of anti-crisis programs raise questions. According to the opinion at the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), coverage of new anti-crisis programs and their long-term impact, including how new credit commitments are going to be distributed to future expenditures of the budget, raise a lot of questions. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Institute for Development Freedom of Information (IDFI) has overviewed current developments and challenges in the energy sector of Georgia including November 2020. “Energy sector is strategically important sector for the economy which has significant socio-economic impact on the society and while energy independence is important for the countries sustainable development, IDFI will analyze and publish future trends in the sector periodically”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) critically appraises an action of the Government to demand lists of clergy and parishioners from non-dominant religious organizations. As EMC considers, with this decision, the state actually forces people to reveal their religious affiliation. “Besides, the state will obtain access to the number of clergy and parishioners, as well as to their places of living. In the circumstances when the trust of religious organizations and communities in the State Agency for Religious Issues is very low and it is considered as an agency connected with security services, it is problematic that the Government attempts to use again control techniques and methods to communicate with religious organizations and interfere in their autonomy”. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge