Toloraia hopes President of Georgia will veto the law on replacing State Inspector’s Service with 2 new agencies
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, December 31
The Georgian parliament has approved a bill to replace the State Inspector's Service with a Special Investigation Service and Personal Data Protection Service in March 2022.
81 MPs supported the amendments proposed by ruling GD MPs in its third and final reading in the 150-member legislative body.
Ruling party MPs explained that the 120 employees of the State Inspector's Service will not lose their jobs and will be allocated to the newly established agencies.
State Inspector Londa Toloraia said that the parliament 'abolished' the State Inspector's Service 'prematurely' and expressed her hope that President Zurabishvili will veto the bill.
“The word of the President of Georgia is important now. I want to thank her for her expressive support,” she said.
NGOs Democracy Index - Georgia, Independent Lawyers Group, and Democracy Research Institute also issued a statement, calling on the President to use the constitutional authority and veto the aforementioned bill that was submitted for signature.
Inspector welcomed the decision about staff, saying that ‘after a 3-day struggle between us and the international community, the non-governmental sector, parliament changed its attitude towards the staff and decided to redeploy staff to the 2 newly created agencies, but this does not change the result - an independent state institution no longer exists.’
She said that at the committe meeting she didn’t hear a single reasoned answer on why the agency wasn’t involved in the ‘reform’, why the process was accelerated, why the head of the agency who was elected for 6 years could not remain, and how these two directions become stronger.
Toloraia reminded the MPs who pressed the support button for this law that the supervisory agencies are not created by countries to unconditionally agree with all the decisions of the government. Supervisors are set up in developed countries to have a say when state agencies violate human rights.
“In contrast, Parliament overthrew an independent agency, which acted only in accordance with the law; the agency, which boldly charged the public institutions with the responsibility for illegal interference in the private life of others and illegal use of other people's data; that first responded to the publication of the secret recordings; which was doing its best with limited resources to investigate the facts of violence committed by the law enforcers; dared to say out loud that it encountered obstacles in the process of obtaining evidence necessary to punish violent officials; the agency, which really stood on the European path and established new, European standards; which was able to gain unprecedented public support in 2 years, clearly demonstrated in the last 3 days; and that dared to prepare the legislative changes and boldly expressed its critical opinion while these reforms were facade.”
Earlier on 30th of December European Parliament member Viola von Cramon called the possible adoption of a bill 'disturbing'. She added that the Georgian government is ‘trying to abolish’ the Inspector’s Service, calling it ‘one of the most professional and well-functioning state institutions.’
Recall, that Foreign dignitaries have expressed their concern over this bill as well. Ambassador of France to Georgia called for 'wide consultations' regarding the ongoing reform. Deputy Head of mission at the British Embassy expressed her hope that 'any decision' will be afforded with the necessary time and care. Ambassadors of the Netherlands and Norway called for an 'open and transparent process. Earlier, the US ambassador has called on parliament to pause splitting of State Inspector’s Service into 2 agencies, and the EU delegation head has announced that 'abolition' of State Inspector's Service 'bears risks' for Georgian democracy.
Meanwhile, the ruling party argues that both the investigative and personal data protection agencies will be strengthened as a result of the changes, stating that, additional functions will be added.
