On 26 June, Transparency International (TI) Georgia published their National Integrity System (NIS) assessment, covering the period between 2015 and 2020. According to the report, most of Georgia’s key institutions currently do not effectively perform their role in terms of facilitating democratic governance and preventing corruption.
Only three of the 12 institutions assessed in the study had a high or relatively high final score: the Public Defender, the State Audit Office, and the Electoral Administration. On the other side of the spectrum, Georgia’s judiciary, businesses and public administration had the lowest final score.
The NIS methodology involved the assessment of institutions according to a set of indicators, including independence, resources, transparency, accountability, integrity and their role in combating corruption. The significant problems identified in the report included: 1) an extremely high degree of the concentration of power and the ruling party's almost total control over a majority of public institutions. The legislature’s and the judiciary’s lack of independence reduces their ability to exercise effective oversight of the governmental and law enforcement activities; 2) 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; 3) the growing pressure by the authorities on the media and the business sector; and 4) attacks by the representatives of the authorities on the Public Defender and civil society organizations.
The following recommendations were issued by TI in regard to the results of the study: 1) promoting political competition through the reform of the electoral system; 2) establishment of an effective system for detecting conflict of interest and corruption in public administration and responding to them; 3) establishment of an independent anti-corruption agency that will be protected from any type of undue interference in its activities in order to deal with the cases of high-level corruption effectively; 4) 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; 5) the so-called clan's influence must be eliminated in the judiciary, which requires the dismissal of its members from the system; and 6) the Georgian authorities must refrain from any kind of pressure on the Public Defender, the media and nongovernmental organizations.
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is an international non-governmental organization based in Berlin, Germany and was founded in 1993. Its non-profit purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil societal anti-corruption measures and to prevent criminal activities arising from corruption. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) was established in 2000 as a local non-governmental organization committed to combating corruption in Georgia through the promotion of transparency and accountability.
