Tbilisi. The International Human Rights Defenders Day was celebrated for the second time in Georgia on 9 December 2019. The aim of raising awareness of the activities of human rights defenders and human rights organizations and recognizing their role. ‘Georgia, as one of the UN member states, has a commitment to provide human rights defenders with appropriate conditions for their activities and to protect them from any influence;, - Is mentioned in the statement of the Public Defender of Georgia, - ‘We emphasized the regrettable trends of recent years, especially the cases, when senior political officials verbally assaulted and discredited representatives of NGOs, as well as the misinformation campaign against NGOs and human rights defenders on social networks, which seemed to be well funded and organized’. Read more… Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Democracy Initiative has prepared a review of the situation in regard to human rights in Georgia. The review reflects how human rights have been protected in the country in 2019 and highlights main problems and challenges in this regard. The organization considers that their solution will play fundamental role in the future in terms of both defining a human rights policy and strengthening protection mechanisms against violations of human rights. Read more… Source: www.gdi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia points out that Countering different forms of corruption remains a significant challenge for Georgia. “In Georgia, 36% percent of those surveyed believe that abuse of power for personal gain by public officials is common (with only 15% saying that it is not common), while 51% think that instances of corruption are not investigated properly when high-ranking officials or influential individuals with links to the ruling party are involved”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. On December 4, The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) with the support of the European Union (EU) presented conducted the presentation of the analysis of legislation and practice of plea bargain. “Despite several reforms over the years, the practice of concluding plea bargains in Georgia is still very active and its use is well above the European average. Our research aims to identify gaps and challenges in plea bargaining and identify specific proposals to eliminate them.” – is mentioned in the blog post. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. On November 29-30, The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) held the 2-day international conference - Good Governance Forum (GG Forum), which aimed to explore innovative mechanisms and the most cost-effective approaches of combating corruption, especially high-level corruption. The conference intended to do this by engaging local and international experts and stakeholders around several key related topics: anti-corruption monitoring and institutional solutions to combating corruption, beneficial ownership transparency, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), public procurement and open contracting. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. “Transparency International Georgia” studied entrepreneurial activities of all 50 members of Tbilisi City Municipal Assembly of VI convocation and, as stated in information disseminated by the organization, revealed several violations. More specifically: 10 officials of the Assembly incompletely declared either their own entrepreneurial activities or those of their family members; six of them transferred their shares in private companies to other people with the right of management; while one official remains on a position of a director in a private company, thus performing an activity incompatible with his work. “Transparency International Georgia” addresses the “Civil Service Bureau” to examine property declarations of these officials and respond respectively. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blog post: Violations and Response Mechanisms of Ethical Norms in the Parliament of Georgia. “Verbal and physical confrontations in the state legislature have been a subject for discussion in the public. The Parliament of Georgia adopted the Code of Ethics on February 22th of 2019, but the statute of the Ethics Council is yet to be approved and all of the positions have not been filled. As a result, the Council is unable to receive and deliberate on complaints, essentially leaving the violations of the Code of Ethics unenforced”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blog post: Offshore Zones and Georgia. “Some regulations regarding offshore companies should be also worked out in Georgia. The country should comply with the recommendations of the OECD Anti-Corruption Network and require disclosure to offshore companies, at least when these companies or their subsidiaries participate in public procurement, the Partnership Fund’s projects or other state programs”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of Transparency International – Georgia, the company of the family of a member of Batumi City Assembly wins tenders of Batumi City Hall without competition.  "“Acharganateba” is a company owned by the family of Irakli Topuridze, a member of the “Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia” faction at Batumi City Assembly. It wins non-competitive tenders and acquires the right to a simplified purchase - from February 2011 through May 2019 the company has received GEL 26,523,383 in total through 94 tenders and 22 simplified purchases. 82% of this amount comes from mom-competitive tenders and simplified purchases”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Costs of amenities for the presidential residence. “In terms of inappropriate disposal of budgetary funds, purchase of modern furniture, lighting facilities and curtains for GEL 720 225 without a tender carries a special risk. IDFI calls on the State Audit Office to scrutinize purpose and cost-effectiveness of disposal of financial means allocated from the reserve fund and spent on amenities for the presidential residence”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Local Democracy Agency Georgia was held forum in Baghdati Municipality. Forum was attended by citizens, Mayors, City Hall department heads, and mayoral representatives in the administrative units from Baghdati municipality. The goal of this forum is to increase the involvement of citizens in municipal-level planning, include citizens’ input in next year’s budget, and improve communication between each municipality’s local authorities and their populations. It should be noticed, that according to the research by LDA Georgia, two social programs such as Autism Spectrum Kids program and Home care program,will be included in the 2020 budget of Baghdati municipality. Read more… Source: Social network

Tbilisi. On June 12, 2019 the bill known as the fourth wave of judicial reforms was submitted to the Parliament. “The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary considers that, among the changes, the specification of grounds for disciplinary responsibility of judges and separation of the selection of listeners of the High School of Justice (HSoJ) from the functions of the High Council of Justice (HCOJ) is to be commended. At the same time, the bill introduces several innovations that the Coalition is critical of”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Today, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) with the support of the European Union (EU) presented the 2017-2018 interim monitoring results of the Strategy & the Action Plan implementation by the PSG.  As in the document is mentioned the implementation of the activities set forth by the Action Plan of the Prosecution Service of Georgia (PSG) worsened in 2018 in comparison with 2017, - ‘According to the interim monitoring results, out of 127 activities for the year 2017, the PSG fully implemented 87 commitments, mostly implemented 20 and 15 - partly, though 5 were left unimplemented. As for 2018, from 119 activities: 32 were unimplemented, while 65 were fully, 11 – mostly and 11 – partly implemented’.  Read more…  Source: https://idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blog post: there is an annual increase in the number of municipal legal entities in Kutaisi. “The number of legal entities established by the Kutaisi City Hall has increased from 20 to 22 in the last three years, which has resulted in a higher number of employees and budgetary allocation for their activities by the municipality”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Assessing Georgia’s progress on human rights over the past six years, a renowned international expert commissioned by the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) lauded significant achievements in legislative and policy reform, including new laws on anti-discrimination, juvenile justice, occupational safety, child rights and the protection of migrants and asylum seekers.  Independent expert report on Georgia’s National Human Rights Strategy for 2014-2020 finds significant achievements in legislative and policy reform, provides recommendations on better practical implementation especially in the areas of independence of judges and prosecutors, media pluralism, transparent and democratic law-making and non-discrimination.  Read more…  Source: https://eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. 15 participants successfully completed IDFI’s practical training on the Methods & Mechanisms of Government Oversight. “The training participants selected out of 200 applicants via the open call, included students, activists and journalists from all parts of Georgia“, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: Social network

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blog post: the company of the advisor to the Mayor of Akhaltsikhe is winning tenders in Akhaltsikhe. “Gelvas Geladze, the advisor on infrastructure issues to the Mayor of Akhaltsikhe, Zaza Melikidze, is winning tenders in Akhaltsikhe municipalities without any competition with his company - Mshenebeli 2004. Since 2014, when Geladze was appointed to a position in the self-government, his company revenues amounted to 4 096 286 GEL, out of which 1 103 065 GEL (about 27%) was secured by Mshenebeli 2004 through procurement contracts in Akhaltsikhe municipalities. Gelvas Geladze was also a member of the Bidding and Admission Committees, as well as the supervisor for ongoing projects and also a contractor. More than half of this amount - GEL 651 420 - was secured through tenders with no competition”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender publishes an assessment of 10 years of torture prevention. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. TI Georgia has studied the contracts concluded for organizing the celebration events in the years 2017-2019.  “In 2017-2019, public procurements with a value of GEL 1,493,385 were made for holding celebration events, out of which GEL 827,735 (about 55% of the total amount) was spent through simplified procurements”, is noted in the statement, - “Spending of budgetary funds on pre-planned events envisaged by the events calendar (New Year concerts, the opening of the tourism season in Batumi, May 26 celebrations, Batumoba (Batumi Day) celebrations) in a simplified manner contradicts the very criteria of substantiation of simplified procurement”.  Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) has studied the practice of disbursement of reserve funds of local self-government units during 2018.  “The study has revealed that the practice of determination of the amount of reserve funds and their consumption is different in various municipalities. A number of city halls of municipalities incur expenses that entail questions in regard to the necessity of funding them from reserve funds”, - is stated in the final part of the study.  Read more… Source: The website of the organization