Parliament Speaker calls on organisations to register following adoption of transparency law

Shalva Papuashvili, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, on Tuesday called on organisations on the country to register in a database set up following the enactment of the domestic law on transparency of foreign influence.

The law requires 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.

I urge all organisations to register and be transparent with the Georgian people. We see that apparently, some donors and some NGOs have much to hide, as they go to such lengths, even breaking the law, just to avoid disclosing what money they receive and how they spend it”, Papuashvili claimed.

The lawmaker also said the list of organisations registering themselves in the roster would be a “proper exercise in [self-accounting] to see what values non-governmental organisations actually stand for” and if the NGO sector, which “preaches the rule of law, a fair state, and law and order will show its true worth”.

He alleged “many of these NGOs are under pressure not to enrol in the registry and make their finance sources transparent” or risk losing their funding, and called the alleged circumstance “outrageous”.

Papuashvili added that those with disagreements with the law had already appealed to the Constitutional Court against the legislation and urged them to await its ruling.