NGO: ‘only 3 of 12 institutions highly assessed in corruption prevention, facilitating democratic governance in Georgia’

Only three of 12 key institutions in Georgia have  been highly assessed by TI in a report on facilitating democratic governance and preventing corruption in Georgia, reads the National Integrity System (NIS) assessment published by Transparency International Georgia, which covers the period between 2015 and 2020.

The Public Defender, the State Audit Office, and the Electoral Administration, which have a high or fairly high final score in the NIS assessment, were studied based on the following indicators:

• Independence
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Integrity
• Role in combating corruption

The report reads that public agencies often do not follow the recommendations issued by the State Audit Office. Photo: Infographic/TI Georgia.

The significant problems identified in the report include:

• An extremely high degree of the concentration of power and the ruling party’s almost total control over a majority of public institutions. Undue informal influence over the government’s activities
• The legislature’s and the judiciary’s lack of independence which reduces their ability to exercise effective oversight of the government’s and the new enforcement agencies’ activities
• Weak political competition, caused by the ruling party’s privileged access to resources, as well as the inability of the State Audit Office and the law enforcement agencies to deal effectively with violations of campaign financing rules and voter bribing
• The growing pressure by the authorities on the media and the business sector
• Attacks by the representatives of the authorities on the Public Defender and the civil society organisations

Since the existing law enforcement system is incapable of investigating the cases of high-level corruption effectively, Georgia must establish an independent anti-corruption agency which will be protected from any undue interference in its activities. It could be a multi-functional agency, combining the investigative role with corruption prevention and policy planning roles”, reads the official statement of TI Georgia.

TI  says  in order to establish a genuinely independent and professional civil service, the government must refrain from any type of undue interference in the work of civil servants and must ensure that employment and promotion in public administration are based ‘exclusively on the professional criteria established by the law’.