More than 80% of Georgian officials’ 2018 property declarations contained violations

The Georgian Civil Service Bureau has checked 448 property declarations of public servants and state officials last year and reports that 379 of them included violations.

Violations included: indication of inaccurate size of real estate, undeclared real estate, inaccurate bank accounts, undeclared bank accounts and others.

31 of the 379 declarations had minor violations: these individuals received only verbal warnings, while others whose declarations included inaccurate information have been fined.

Of all the declarations, only one shows possible signs of criminal offence – the declaration has been sent to law enforcement agencies for investigation.  The number of such declarations in 2017 was seven.

More than 2,800 state officials are obliged to fill property declarations in Georgia annually.

Declarations checked included statements from:

• Georgian parliament members: the property declarations of 60 members of parliament and two officials have been checked. 59 of the declarations included violations. Only one MP filled the declaration without violations.
• Judges: 14 judges’ estates were checked, seven of which revealed violations.
• Presidential administration: declarations of two officials were checked, both of them included violations.
• The executive government: 104 declarations checked, 76 of them included violations.
• Local municipalities: 186 declarations checked, 106 of them belonged to members of city assemblies and 76 to city hall employees and governors.  160 of the declarations included violations.
• State Security Service: 21 declarations were checked, 16 of them included violations.