TI: 29 out of 64 ministers and deputy ministers of Georgia have commercial interest

Transparency International – Georgia published a report claiming that several high-profile officials do not have their declarations filled properly. As the organization suggests, the declaration of First Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, Irakli Karseladze only includes him being the director of only 5 companies, and it lacks the other 9 companies.

As TI rights, according to the declaration of May 2019, Karseladze was the director of only 5 companies as of April of 2018, while, according to TI, he worked for other companies in the same position.

TI’s list also includes 3 ministers: Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, Maia Tskitishvili, Minister of Health, Ekaterine Tikaradze, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Levan Davitashvili.

As the report says, the declaration also lacks information about Tskitishvili’s husband being the director and 100% shareholder of the company Microclimate Ltd. According to them, Tskitishvili has not mentioned the fact that she owned 75% of a company until March of 2018, which then she gave to her husband.

Tskitishvili excludes that her property declaration is incomplete. According to the minister, she and her husband have no activities that have not been officially indicated.

According to the study, Ekaterine Tikaradze did not mention in her August 2019 declaration that her husband, Bidzina Kakabadze, was the director of Sada Ltd.

As for Levan Davitashvili, according to the organization, he did not indicate in his 2019 declaration that he had owned shares in four companies during 2018, which he gave up (free of charge) in January 2019. In addition, they said, the minister did not mention in the declaration that his wife Tea Parkosadze was also the director of Intermanagement Ltd.

According to the organization, almost half of the ministers and deputy ministers of Georgia, 29 out of 64, have a commercial interest, 22 of which violate the requirements of the law related to disclosure of commercial interest and avoiding incompatibility of interests.

The organization explains that the current legislation in Georgia imposes certain restrictions on officials, such as they may own shares in any company, though they should temporarily transfer the right to manage those shares; Also, during their tenure, they are not allowed to hold the position of the head of any company. The purpose of these restrictions is to prevent cases of conflict of interest.

According to them, part of the restrictions also apply to the family members of the official, for example, the official or his/her family member is not entitled to a share in the enterprise, the activities of which are subject to the control of that official or his/her office. The purpose of this restriction is to exclude the incompatibility of interests when an official can exercise their authority to put themselves or their company in a predominant position.

Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) was established on 7 May 2000 as a local non-governmental organization committed to combating corruption in Georgia through the promotion of transparency and accountability. TI Georgia is a national chapter of Transparency International (TI), the only international non-governmental organization devoted to combating corruption.