Ruling party official claims seven NGOs underreported recent funding

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the Parliament, on Monday claimed seven “well-known” domestic non-governmental organisations had received ₾85 million ($31.84mln) in funding over the recent years while only reporting ₾15 million ($5.62mln).

Mdinaradze spoke at a meeting of the Committee on Legal Issues of the Georgian Parliament, which today started discussing the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence. The bill calls for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

• Georgian Parliament’s Legal Issues Committee starts deliberations on controversial transparency bill

The lawmaker alleged the authorities had determined the $31.84mln spent from income tax and other documents, while the NGOs - which he refrained from specifying - had only formally declared the $5.62mln portion with relevant authorities.

He also said the alleged actions may have been pursued to ensure the organisations were free from having to pay VAT on the grants.

This lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess the actual amount [of funding] [...] Even for tax purposes, this opacity creates problems, and there are no other obligations for these organisations”, Mdinaradze said.

The comments come on the backdrop of criticism of the bill, which has been reintroduced by the ruling party following its retraction after public protests last year. The domestic opposition, NGO sector and some of Georgia’s international partner states and diplomatic representations in the country have criticised the legislative piece.