IDFI NGO: 70% of anti-corruption recommendations to Georgia not fulfilled
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, July 15
The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) says that 70 percent of anti-corruption recommendations of the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body - Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) - have not been fulfilled.
“According to the recent report, from 16 Recommendations on corruption prevention, Georgia has implemented satisfactorily only five of them, three recommendations have not been implemented and eight recommendations – partly implemented,” IDFI says.
The recommendations were about anti-corruption activities in Parliament, and law enforcement agencies.
Three out of the 16 recommendations were related solely to the Parliament:
1. Ensure transparency of the legislative process and the uniform practice of public consultation in this process;
2. Ensure adoption of the Code of Ethics of the Member of Parliament and enforcement of the code;
3. Ensure the obligation of the Members of Parliament to make ad hoc declaration on the conflict of interests.
“From the three recommendations with regards the Parliament GRECO did not consider any recommendation to have been fully implemented,” IDFI said.
The GRECO recommendations on the Judiciary touched upon the following obligations by the government of Georgia:
1. Reform of the appointment and promotion of judges for the purpose of ensuring the reasonability, objectivity and transparency of the decisions in this process;
2. Upgrading legislation on the transfer of judges in such a manner which enables the transfer from one court to another without the consent of the judge only in exceptional circumstances;
3. Improvement of the system of case distribution within the court in order to ensure objectivity and transparency of the process;
4. Adoption of the norms of judicial ethics and their implementation in practice;
5. Ensure efficiency, transparency and objectivity of disciplinary proceedings of judges;
6. Limitation of absolute immunity of judges to the functional immunity.
“IDFI has been talking about the need to improve the appointment and promotion procedures of judges, norms of ethics and disciplinary liability, as well as to ensure the objective case distribution in the court,” the NGO says.
IDFI has called on the Government of Georgia to actively cooperate with civil society and take all necessary measures for implementing GRECO recommendations. The NGO said, in parallel, they will continue to actively advocate relevant reforms and amendments to ensure the prevention of corruption in the legislative, judicial, and prosecutorial processes.
