TI Georgia: ruling party received half of all parties’ total revenues in 2020
Transparency International Georgia has studied the revenues and expenditures of eight Georgian political parties in the last year. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Transparency International Georgia has stated that the ruling Georgian Dream party had almost half of all parties' total revenues and expenditures, each amounting to about 60 million GEL, last year.
The NGO studied the revenues of eight of nine political parties (except Girchi party) which won seats in the state legislature in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
TI Georgia says that the data shows an ‘extremely unequal distribution of finances’ between the parties.
????OUT NOW: Georgia’s Political Finance in 2020: Revenues and Expenditures of Political Parties and Financial Oversight
— Transparency Int'l GE (@Transparency_GE) May 28, 2021
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Nevertheless, compared to other years, financial inequality has been relatively reduced which was mainly caused by the fact that several financially strong new political parties appeared in 2020,” said the NGO.
TI Georgia said that only 19% of the total revenues received by the parties came from public funding, while in 2019, public funding was up to 60% of the revenues received by the parties.
This is explained by the fact that in 2019, unlike 2020, no general elections were held. The share of private donations is traditionally high in an election year,” said the NGO.
TI Georgia says that 97% of the total donations received by the parties were made by individuals and three per cent by legal entities.
The NGO states that in 2020, as in other years, the alleged cases of political corruption and the lack of adequate response to them were relevant.
“As it turned out, the companies connected with the donors of the ruling party had won public tenders worth about 158 million GEL in 2020 and, in return, during the same period, these donors had donated 1.6 million GEL for the benefit of the Georgian Dream,” said the NGO.
The NGO says that in addition to tenders, the companies of the individuals donating to the ruling party were also recipients of simplified public procurement contracts.
The NGO says that funding of Georgian political parties, like Alliance of Patriots, from the occupant country (Russia) was not properly investigated by state agencies.