Selection of candidates for chairmanship of two new agencies replacing Inspector’s service begins
PM Garibashvili will nominate a total of four candidates to the Parliament of Georgia out of which two candidates will be put forward for the position of the head of Special Investigation Service and the remaining two for the Personal Data Protection service. Photo: Parliament of Georgia.
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The first sessions of election commissions of candidates for the chairmanship of two new agencies: Special Investigation and Personal Data Protection services, replacing the State Inspector’s Service will be held today, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced earlier today.
Garibashvili also underscored that he will also participate in the process in accordance with the legislation, saying that election commissions for both positions have already been set up.
PM Garibashvili will nominate a total of four candidates to the Parliament of Georgia out of which two candidates will be put forward for the position of the head of Special Investigation Service and the remaining two for the Personal Data Protection service.
It is important to have at least five years of experience working in the judicial system or law enforcement agencies or in the field of human rights based on the criteria of the commissions,” Garibashvili said.
The Georgian government adopted the bill replacing the State Inspector’s Service, which investigated alleged offences committed by state officials and law enforcement agencies, with the Special Investigation and Personal Data Protection services on December 30.
According to the legislative changes, the State Inspector's Service will be replaced with two new agencies in March 2022.
The foreign diplomats, NGOs and the opposition called on the ruling party to pause the process of replacing the inspector’s service, calling for wide consultations.
However, the ruling party says the replacement of the State Inspector’s Service with two new agencies will strengthen the body and add functions to it, noting that the authority of the State Inspector’s Service ‘has been broadly expanded.’
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has approved a bill adopted by the parliament on December 30 which replaces the State Inspector’s Service with two new agencies despite calls for a veto.
Ruling Georgian Dream party Head Irakli Kobakhidze has stated that the US Embassy’s statement, which criticises GD for the abolition of the State Inspector’s Service, ‘shakes the confidence of the Georgian public in western partners.'
The United States Embassy to Georgia has denounced hasty legislative amendments proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, stating that the replacement of the State Inspector’s Service with two new agencies ‘undermined government accountability.’
The Georgian parliament has approved a bill to replace the State Inspector's Service with a Special Investigation Service and Personal Data Protection Service in March 2022.
Eighty-one MPs supported the amendments proposed by ruling Georgian Dream party MPs in its third and final reading in the 150-member legislative body.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili on Monday opened the first session of the selection commissions for picking chairpersons of the Special Investigation Service and Personal Data Protection Service, two agencies set to replace the outgoing State Inspector’s Service starting in March.
Georgian State Inspector Londa Toloraia has appealed the law abolishing the State Inspector’s Service and replacing it with two new agencies in Georgia’s Constitutional Court. Toloraia said her appeal requested an “immediate suspension” of the law before the court delivers its final decision on the case.
The Georgian parliament’s Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration has expressed support for Lela Janashvili, the candidate for the post of the Head of the Personal Data Protection Service, one of two new agencies launched to replace the outgoing State Inspector Service, on Friday.
The Committee on Legal Affairs of the Parliament of Georgia has expressed support for Emzar Gagnidze and Karlo Katsitadze, two candidates presented for the position of the Head of the Special Investigation Service by the prime minister, paving the way for the legislative body’s voting on their nomination.
Georgia’s Special Investigation Service, a recently established agency probing abuse of power at institutions, on Wednesday asked the country’s Parliament to extend its mandate and allow the body to look into all cases involving alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.