Tbilisi. The Coalition for Independent and Transparent Judiciary reacts to the judicial reform strategy and action plan released by the Parliament at the end of last week within the framework of the Justice Reform Working Group. The Coalition states that the proposed document does not reflect the real challenges in the justice system. Unfortunately, once again, it proves that the ruling political team does not have the readiness for real reform and continues to aim for façade changes. “We believe that the proposed reform strategy and action plan ignore the most pressing problems in the system. Another façade reform will not be enough to ensure the real independence of the justice system and thus will pose an even greater threat to the country's European integration process”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. TI Georgia informs, that Georgia’s 18 state agencies do not publish their simplified procurement contracts. Among them are such important agencies as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Government Administration, Presidential Administration, State Security Service, and others. "Hidden contracts", except for procurements related to state secrets, should not exist, as this significantly increases the risk of corruption. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia studied the issue of Georgia's economic dependence on Russia, as it poses a threat to the country. In particular, the data as of June 2022, on trade between Georgia and Russia, tourists, remittances, foreign direct investments from Russia, and registration of Russian companies in Georgia were analyzed. In January-June 2022, Georgia received about USD 1.2 billion in income from Russia through remittances, tourism, and commodity exports, which is 2.5 times more than the income received from Russia in January-June 2021 from the same sources. Moreover, this year’s receipts are 36% more than the income received from Russia before Covid-19 - in January-June 2019. This means that compared to previous years, Georgia's economic dependence on Russia has been increasing. This growth is mainly due to the soaring remittances. Exports of goods taken separately decreased. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Adjara. According to the TI Georgia’s information the Mayor of the Khelvachauri Municipality Zaza Diasamidze is building a house without a permit, and the construction expenses are not disclosed in the asset declaration. Transparency International Georgia found that Zaza Diasamidze started construction in 2019, on the land belonging to his wife, Tamila Tchurkveidze, although he only reported this in the asset declaration submitted in 2022. The information about the donated land plot can be found in the asset declaration submitted by Zaza Diasamidze in 2019, submitted as the Head of Division of the Khelvachauri District of the Adjara Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Tamila Tchurkveidze received a 500-square-meter plot of land in 2018 upon a deed of gift from her father. The plot is located in Akhalsopeli, 240 meters from the Gonio-Apsaros highway. A month later, Tamila Tchurkveidze applied to the Batumi City Hall for permission to utilize a homestead for building a house; the City Hall approved the application in October of the same year. In December 2018, Diasamidze’s wife agreed an architectural project with the Batumi City Hall, however, according to the letter of the City Hall’s Urban Development and Policy Service a construction permit was never issued for this architectural project, consequently, Zaza Diasamidze and his wife never paid a construction permit fee. Transparency International Georgia urges Batumi City Hall to investigate unauthorized construction in Batumi by the Khelvachauri Municipality Mayor and take prompt action. Furthermore, organization urges the Civil Service Bureau to review the violations found in the asset declarations of Zaza Diasamidze and respond in accordance with the law. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. On July 22, 2022, IDFI and Ilia State University held the awarding ceremony and rewarded the program graduates of the Educational Certification Program. Nino Doborjginidze, Rector of Ilia State University, and Giorgi Kldiashvili, Executive Director, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) took part in the award ceremony. “It should be highlighted that apart from the lecturing courses, the Program participants have the opportunity to participate in additional activities, such as, taking part in the trainings and workshops organized by IDFI, participate in the international exchange programs and establish the contacts on the local, and international level. The Educational Certification Program provides the unique ability for the employees in public, private and non-governmental sectors and students to develop as experts in fighting corruption, receive the theoretical and practical knowledge, share the international experience and support the defeat of corruption on different levels in Georgia. The program is financially supported by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) under the project “Building Sustainable Human Capacity in Fighting Corruption” and by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) with the scopes of the “Core Support” project”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia published the Report on the Performance of the Parliament of the Tenth Convocation. “The post-electoral political crisis and the problems related to the coronavirus pandemic had a negative impact on the first year performance of the Parliament of the 10th convocation. Due to growing political crisis, the Parliament failed to exercise its control mechanisms effectively. The opposition, largely due to its legislative boycott, was not fully involved in the activities of the Parliament. No significant reforms were implemented during the reporting period, including the 19th April agreement between political parties, that envisaged power-sharing within the Parliament.” Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Imereti. According to the TI Georgia’s survey, tenders in the municipalities of Zestaponi, Terjola, and Baghdati are won by Borani LLC, a company with links to the Georgian Dream, whose main activity is the arrangement, maintenance, and repairs of road surfaces. From 2013 to July 12, 2022, the company obtained tenders and simplified procurement contracts worth GEL 34,970,860. “In the opinion of TI Georgia, the involvement of Borani LLC in the public procurements of the municipalities of Zestaponi, Terjola, and Baghdati raises doubts regarding the lawfulness of the process. Therefore, we call on the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service to study each procurement and establish whether or not they contain possible signs of corruption”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Transparency International Georgia’s present study brings together the information on N(N)LEs established by the municipalities of Zugdidi, Poti, Abasha, Martvili, Senaki, Khobi, Tsalenjikha, Chkhorotsku, and Mestia, as well as on only those LLCs that receive subsidies from local budgets. The reporting period includes the years 2020-2022. “Ninety-two legal entities of the nine municipalities of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region have increased the number of employees and their salaries in 2022 – the salaries of 8,406 people working in the non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities (N(N)LEs) and limited liability companies (LLCs) – those already paid this year and to be paid until the end of the year – amount to GEL 52,237,836 in total, which is 24% of the total allocations of the budgets of the region’s municipalities”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to the IDFI, on 13 July 2022, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published the addendum to the Fourth Evaluation Round second compliance report for Georgia, which evaluates the progress made in implementing the outstanding recommendations since the second compliance report. According to the assessment, eight out of the 16 recommendations issued by GRECO to Georgia are still unimplemented. IDFI once again calls on authorities to acknowledge the existing challenges addressing of which is critical for successful implementation of reforms, take all necessary measures for implementing GRECO recommendations, and renew the implementation of Anti-Corruption reforms. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. On May 30, 2022, OECD published a pilot report on the assessment of the corruption environment in Georgia. "Even though the report does not include information about the scores received by Georgia and the ratings of fulfillment of indicators in each performance area, based on the descriptive part of the monitoring report it can be said that almost all the thirteen areas are characterized by a low level of performance". Learn more... Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to the TI Georgia’s new survey, financial inequality between political parties and ineffective state oversight of political corruption remain major problems in Georgia. “Both in terms of total revenues and expenditures (up to GEL 40 million each), the ruling party's finances were almost twice as high as the other 16 parties combined, indicating an extremely unequal distribution of finances between the parties, which is a traditional problem of Georgian politics. Revenues received by political parties: 17 political parties received a total of GEL 43 million of revenues in 2021. The ruling party - Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia got 60% - about GEL 26 million of this amount. The United National Movement was second with GEL 5.1 million and Lelo for Georgia was third with GEL 3.3 million; Expenditures of political parties: 17 political parties spent a total of GEL 41.9 million in 2021, of which 62% - GEL 25.8 million was spent by the Georgian Dream party. The United National Movement was second with GEL 5.1 million, and Lelo for Georgia was third with GEL 3.3; The alleged cases of political corruption or other types of violations: In 2021, the companies connected with the donors of the ruling party had won public tenders worth about GEL 320 million and simplified public procurement contracts of GEL 19 million. During the same period, the donors directly or indirectly affiliated with these companies contributed over GEL 4.5 million for the benefit of the Georgian Dream, is noted in the survey. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Tranpsarency International Georgia publishes the blogpost: Who Runs Georgia Irakli Garibashvili - Prime Minister with an Informal Master. “Who Runs Georgia is a new series of publications aimed at highlighting the allegations of corruption against the country’s ruling elite”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia has analyzed the official data related to privatization of the state-owned real estate by the central government in 2013-2021 and found that the process of privatization contains significant corruption risks. Extremely low competition, lack of transparency, absence of integrity mechanisms and inadequate response to alleged violations – these are the key challenges that create corruption risks in the process of privatization. “In Georgia, a significant part of land resources is still owned by the state. With the current rate of privatization, the process is expected to last for many more years. Given the above-mentioned challenges and the fact that there are no high-level corruption prevention mechanisms in the country, there is a high probability that the state property will be disposed of in favor of private interests of specific individuals, at the expense of state and public interests, a number of alleged examples of which are provided in this study”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to the information of the TI Georgia, during his parliamentary address on June 22, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili spoke that Georgia is amongst champions in the fight against corruption. “The government of Georgia repeatedly misinterprets international rankings to conceal real problems in the country. This time the Prime Minister utilized the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2021. He stated that according to the CPI, Georgia ranked 51st in 2012 and 45th in 2021, disregarding that the score obtained by a country is more important than the rank. Georgia’s score has not improved significantly since 2012 when the country had 52 points out of 100; Nine years later, in 2021 Georgia had a score of 55, indicating the stagnation of anti-corruption reforms in the country. 55 points is an average result. For example, the scores of the top 10 performing countries exceed 80. He stated that Georgia is the unconditional leader in the Associated Trio, compared to Ukraine and Moldova. According to the CPI, Georgia does have a better result, which is largely due to the low level of petty bribery. However, successful anti-bribery reforms were carried out 18 years ago and cannot be recognized as the current government’s achievement. What the CPI scores actually indicate is that similar ambitious reforms have not been implemented in the last 9 years. Moreover, the CPI uses the term "state capture" only with reference to Georgia and not Moldova or Ukraine, which the Prime Minister also did not mention”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Representatives of IDFI, within the scopes of the Eurasian Academic Anti-Corruption Network (EAACN) participated in the UNCHAINED podcast regarding the sustainability of the anticorruption reforms in Georgia. “Despite the fact that for the last 15 years Georgia was the leader in implementing the anticorruption reforms in Eastern Partnership countries, the anticorruption features of Georgia are getting worse. Civil society agrees that it is important to continue the implementation of anticorruption reforms and fulfill the recommendations of the international organizations.” Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. The Annual Report provides information about TI Georgia's essential events and primary directions that our professional team has worked on in the past year. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to the IDFI, The amendments to the Law of Georgia on Facilitating the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing are not enough to address the challenges existing in the country in this direction and it is necessary for the Georgian Government to take more ambitious steps. IDFI calls on the authorities to not spare efforts in implementing MONEYVAL and FATF recommendations. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

US Department of State published 2021 report of religious freedom. See more…

Tbilisi. According to the 2021 Open Budget Survey (OBS), conducted by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Georgia got 87 points out of 100 in state budget transparency. This is an improvement compared to the 2019 survey’s result (81 points). With this indicator, Georgia took first place in the world ranking of 120 countries, while according to the results of the 2019 survey, Georgia was 5th. The entire research process took approximately 18 months. The OBS 2021 assesses only events, activities, or developments that occurred up to 31 December 2020. Transparency International Georgia has been conducting this research for International Budget Partnership and assessing Georgia’s progress since 2012. According to the TI Georgia, Georgia still has challenges in terms of citizen involvement in the budget process. In particular, out of 100 possible points, Georgia received 44 points (4th place in the world) in terms of ensuring citizen participation in the budgetary process, and 74 points (21st place) in terms of budget oversight. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information publishes the report: Assessment of the Quality of Public-Private Dialogue in Drafting Normative Acts - 2020-2021. “The purpose of this report is to assess the quality of involvement of the private sector in the drafting of laws and regulations having a significant economic impact. The report includes an assessment of the quality of dialogue between the public and private sectors in the process of drafting 18 laws and regulations adopted between January 2020 and September 2021. 8 laws and 8 subordinate normative acts were selected for evaluation at the central level, along with 2 normative acts adopted by local self-government bodies. The selected municipalities were Ozurgeti and Zugdidi”. Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Civil Society Institute (CSI), along with the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), on May 24th, presented a new 2021 country report for CSO Meter: A Compass to Conducive Environment and CSO Empowerment.  The CSO Meter is a monitoring tool used to assess the legislative and practical environment for CSOs, human rights defenders, and activists in Eastern European Partnership countries. The report covers 11 areas pertaining to enabling environment for CSOs and assigns quantitative scores under each area. The scores range from 1 to 7, where 1 signifies the lowest possible score (extremely unfavourable – authoritarian - environment) and 7 signifies the highest possible score (extremely favourable environment).  According to the 2021 CSO Meter report, the environment for CSOs, human rights defenders, and activists in Georgia was assessed with a score of 4.7 out of 7 (Legislation: 5.2, Practice 4.3).  Based on the 2021 CSO-Meter findings, Georgia ranked as a medium-risk country for CSOs.  The Report is implemented by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law Stichting (ECNL).  Country Report 2021...

Tbilisi. Together with the management of the Agency For State Care And Assistance For the (Statutory) Victims of Human trafficking, UN Women invited representatives of Global Rights for Women to Georgia. Experts will evaluate the state funded services provided to DV/VAW victims by shelters and crisis centers, and make recommendations to improve these services. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network