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

Tbilisi. Public Defender of Georgia publishes special report on the process of selection of supreme court judges.  “Monitoring showed that the selection of Supreme Court judges in a fair manner and in accordance with high standards was substantially affected by many shortcomings. The process ongoing in the High Council of Justice failed to convince an objective observer that the most competent and conscientious candidates were submitted to the Parliament of Georgia”, is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blog post: Questions concerning authenticity of Tadumadze’s diploma must be answered.  “Transparency International Georgia studied the documents which confirm inconsistencies with regard to the diploma of incumbent General Prosecutor Shalva Tadumadze. Specifically, according to the diploma, Shalva Tadumadze enrolled in the institute in 1993 while the institute itself was established in 1994. There are inconsistencies in terms of the graduation date too: the diploma indicated 1998, while, according to Shalva Tadumadze’s resumé, it is 1999”, is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia appraises actions taken by the state within the framework of investigation of the June 20 case.  “We present information in regard to approaches that the state applies towards both law enforcers and demonstrators. Provided examples and statistics create an impression of practicing selective approaches. In certain cases, actions of investigative bodies may even carry punitive content and be aimed at intimidating participants of rallies in the future”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. By the Transparency International Georgia the practice of using citizen engagement mechanisms in municipalities of Adjara has partially improved. In comparison to 2015-2016, the practice of using citizen engagement mechanisms in the municipalities of Adjara has improved in 2017-2019. Nevertheless, local governments need to work on improving the quality of citizen engagement.  ‘Transparency International Georgia has requested information from the city halls and Sakrebulos of Batumi, Khulo, Keda, Shuakhevi, Kobuleti and Khelvachauri municipalities to determine to what extent the existing legislation supports citizen engagement, whether municipal authorities make use of the opportunities provided by the legislation and with what issues the citizens address the local self-government’, - is said in the information of TI, - ‘In comparison to 2015-2016, the practice of using citizen engagement mechanisms in the municipalities of Adjara has improved in 2017-2019. Nevertheless, local governments need to work on improving the quality of citizen engagement’.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. In order to examine the practical impact of the law on the remuneration of employees, in particular the distribution of salaries among different employees, TI compared one-month remuneration in central apparatus of ministries before and after the law was implemented.  “As a result, it has been revealed that in 2017-2018, wage inequality increased in five out of eight ministries, while in three ministries it reduced. If we look at the figures of all eight ministries, it would appear that wage inequality has almost not changed during the study period. The purpose of the study was to analyze the inequality of remuneration in the central apparatus of ministries and to describe the trend following the adoption of the new law. To achieve these goals, we have used mean and median salaries in the ministries. To have a full comparison, salaries of political appointees (ministers and deputies) were also taken into account, even though the new law does not apply to them until 2021”, is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) publishes a blog post: Hate Speech in Public Service.  “The study contains a review of a legislative framework that defines restriction of use of hate speech by people employed at public sector. Within the process of survey there were identified those civil servants who used hate speech in public space”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: gdi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) critically appraises an initiative in regard to depriving Mayor Representatives of a status of professional public servant.  “We consider that Mayor Representatives of municipalities should have a status of professional public servant retained, because functions performed by them carry professional character, are not related to passing a policy of Mayor at the local level and to implement them it is not necessary to be in line with political visions of Mayor”, - is noted in the statement of the organization.  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Extent of SDGs Integration in the National Public Policy System of Georgia.  “The given analysis aims at ascertaining to what extent existing national policy documents contain obligations in line with SDG indicators. The evaluation will assist the GoG to identify challenges and take relevant steps in regards to nationalizing specific SDGs”, is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. 19 September, at the Rooms Hotel Tbilisi, Network of Centers for Civic Engagement hosted a presentation of State Grant Funding-Existing Situation and Perspectives. The event was organized by “Network of Centers for Civic Engagement”, in the framework of the project “Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative”.  As a part of this project, within the support of Civil Society Institute, the Network of Centers for Civic Engagement and the Green Caucasus conducted monitoring of the process of grant issuing by public institutions. The monitoring period covered grants, issued in 2016-2017. Core objective of this event was to examine the actual situation as it stands in terms of state grant funding in Georgia and to discuss possible perspectives in this sense and to present monitoring outcomes.  The director of the Network of Centers for Civic Engagement, Nina Khatiskatsi and Civil Society Program Officer of EU Delegation Georgia, Dominika Skubida welcomed the audience. “We note that the scale and scope of funding for Civil Society in Georgia remains still insufficient to meaningfully improve the sustainability of the sector. Enhancement of enabling environment for diversification of funding, including support for refining state granting system, is therefore our main priority aimed at this objective. We welcome therefore the commitment of the Government of Georgia under the Open Government Partnership Action Plan to increase efficiency and allow local governments to use granting mechanism” - said Dominika Skubida.  The first part of the event was dedicated to present the major findings of the monitoring conducted by both organizations. More specifically, some of the crucial aspects have been emphasized: how clearly the particular details related to grant issuance are defined beforehand and to what extent the state agencies fulfill their commitments, considering each stage of providing grants; as well as the experience of granted CSOs in terms of administering state funds. It is worth mentioning that neither monitoring, nor the reports intend to evaluate the quality of the grant projects or its’ content. The legal environment related to the state grant funding was reviewed during the second part of the event. Levan Paniashili, the representative of Civil Society Institute, talked about CSOs’ State Grant Funding Reform Concept, elaborated by CSI expert team. One of the primary aspects he mentioned were the challenges, which reveal the importance and the need of mentioned reform. Moreover, the speaker analyzed current situation in regard to the reform concept and shared the key findings and recommendations of the document, along with its reflection in the legislation. The representatives of the public institutions, media, local CSOs and international organizations attended the presentation. They had an opportunity to address speakers with questions and get involved in the follow up discussions, after the presentations. In addition, the call for applications for the second cycle of the sub-granting competition on the State Grant Funding Monitoring was announced. The participants were able to receive detailed information about the term and conditions.  Project “Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” was developed and is implemented by the consortium, led by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in cooperation with four Georgian Civil Society Organizations: Civil Society Institute (CSI), Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Project aims to improve working environment for CSOs in Georgia, to support their capacity building, accountability and transparency and to strengthen their ties and cooperation with other actors.

Tbilisi. The “Open Society Georgia Foundation” has published individual portfolios of candidates for judges of the Supreme Court of Georgia today. The portfolios offer profiles of twenty candidates selected/nominated by the High Council of Justice as a result of verbal interviews with judicial candidates, combine facts obtained from public sources and contain less appraisals. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary publishes an evaluation of staffing a working group by the Legal Committee. “The Coalition calls on the Committee to review its decision, allow the working group functionally evaluate candidates nominated by the High Council of Justice, reduce the quota of Members of Parliament, ensure involvement of representatives of the civil society organization, while make the expert part more representative”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Today, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and Transparency International – Georgia presented the seventh monitoring report of the High Council of Justice of Georgia of the year 2018.  The monitoring report assesses the legislation regulating the activities of the Council and the activity of the Council while selecting/appointing judges, transparency of the Council activity, a rule and practice of appointing the chairperson of the court and disciplinary liability of judges.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary appraises the process of selection of candidates for judges of the Supreme Court at the High Council of Justice.  “Openness and public format of the interview process must be appraised unequivocally positively, however, the competition itself was not representative in terms of participation of various legal professions. Passivity of bar association and academic community was particularly noticeable. This fact was allegedly caused by corporatism of the judicial system, isolation, unfavorable circumstances for conscientious judges existing within the judiciary”, - is stated in the appraisal.  Read more… Source:coalition.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes the short analysis of 6-month performance report of Georgia’s 2019 state budget. “The surplus in budget Receipts, underspending in budget Expenditure and keeping the budget remainder largely unspent, allowed the Government to save a certain amount of money, which should not be fully spent during the second half of the year. The Government should keep the budget deficit low in the fourth quarter since it is important for the stability of inflation rate and GEL exchange rate”, is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), in 2019 (January-July) the number of crimes has increased by 17.23%.  “In 2019, there has also been observed a negative trend in terms of solving crimes, the indicator of which has deteriorated by approximately 4% in comparison with 2018. Respectively, even in the circumstances of equal methodology and accountability, the number of crimes continues to increase, while the indicators of solving them – to decrease”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Inadequate financial documents of the National Wrestling Federation, conflict of interest, problems with the disposal of state assets and failure to fulfill official commitments – today the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) published a study on 2015-2018 expenditures and related corruption risks at the National Wrestling Federation of Georgia. “The financial reports of the state wrestling program are not aligned with the budget execution reports issued by the Ministry. For instance, in 2017, the former provides information about only GEL 782,785.38, while the latter states that GEL 3,500,000 was allocated for the state wrestling program for the same year”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. EMC presents a new research “Drug Policy in Georgia - Canceled Reform and New Tendencies”.  “The report aims to provide with an overview of basic tendencies concerning the state policy, legislative framework and criminal law practices on drug-related crimes. Through this report, the EMC continues documenting the systemic challenges in the field of drug-related policy in order to provide with comparative analysis of practices and circumstances of previous years as well as to contribute to fundamental changes in drug-related policy”, - is mentioned in a foreword of the research.  Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. According to the Transparency International Georgia after the election of Zaza Melikidze first as Akhaltsikhe Governor and then the Mayor the amounts earned by Melikidze's current and former companies through public procurements increased from 124 793 GEL to 546 044 GEL, amongst them the companies received 524 902 GEL from Akhaltsikhe Municipality. “The Companies associated with Melikidze never participated in Akhaltsikhe Municipality tenders until his election to the office of the Governor. In 2015, after being elected, these companies won 15 tenders. The number of contracts awarded to these companies through direct procurement procedure also increased - in 11 of 21 procurements the contracting parties are the legal entities of Akhaltsikhe Municipality”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. In the framework of the parliamentary monitoring program, Transparency International Georgia presents the Assessment of the Performance of the Parliament of Georgia in 2018, which covers the time period from January 1, 2018 till December 31, 2018. “In addition to the specific challenges identified in the work of the Parliament, it is important to note issues related to the cooperation of the Parliament and the civil society. Public officials in the Parliament, especially Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairperson of the Parliament, has made numerous aggressive statements[1] against the non-governmental sector. Attacks against the non-governmental sector damages the democratic development of the country. This problem was recognized by the U.S. Department of State’s Report on Human Rights Practices in Georgia that was published in 2018”, - is mentioned in the Assessment. Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. “70% of Recommendations Received by Georgia from GRECO about Corruption Prevention Remain is not Fully Implemented”, - is told in the IDFI’s information.  “On 2 July, 2019, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published the Fourth Evaluation Round compliance report for Georgia. The compliance report assessesthe country’s compliance with the recommendations issued in 2016”, - IDFI mentions, - “Under the GRECO procedures, the Government of Georgia had to implement the recommendations within the next two years and provide information to the GRECO Secretariat. Based on the information received from the Government of Georgia in early 2019, GRECO, in the Compliance Report, assessed the implementation of the recommendations issued in 2016 and published the document on its official website on July 2. According to the report, from 16 Recommendations on corruption prevention, Georgia has implemented satisfactorily only five of them, three recommendations have not been implemented and eight recommendations – partly implemented”.  Read more… Source: https://idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) studied projects funded by LLC Partnership Fund (PF). TI Georgia’s conclusions are:  “In order to ensure PF’s stable investment activities, its funding should be sustainable and predictable. Therefore, it would better if PF does not depend on the profits of state-owned companies and it is directly financed by the state budget within certain limits. Additional regulations for ensuring more transparency of PF’s projects should be introduced. More specifically, it would be good if legislation bans funding of such legal entities, which are registered in offshore zones or legal entities, whose owners or shareholders are offshore companies”.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization