Tbilisi. On October 28, the Legal Issues Committee at the Parliament of Georgia initiated a draft law that provides for the creation of a new body – LEPL Anti-Corruption Bureau. The declared goal of the authors of the draft law is to ensure the fulfillment of Point 4 of the 12 recommendations that were given by the European Commission to Georgia as prerequisites for granting the status of a candidate for EU membership. According to the draft law, the function of the new agency will be to contribute to the fight against corruption, which it will carry out by creating anti-corruption policy documents and coordination and supervision over their enforcement. The head of the Bureau will be appointed by the Prime Minister of Georgia.

It is TI Georgia’s assessment that the proposed reform fails to address recommendation 4 given by the European Commission, which asks the country to:

“Strengthen the independence of its Anti-Corruption Agency, bringing together all key anti-corruption functions, in particular to rigorously address high-level corruption cases.”

TI Georgia calls on the Georgian Dream not to miss this historic opportunity and to do everything possible to ensure that even the most skeptically disposed party does not have any questions on whether or not Georgia has adequately fulfilled any of the recommendations of the European Commission.

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Source: transparency.ge