TI: Anti-corruption reform doesn't respond to European Commission recommendation
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
"Transparency International - Georgia" published the assessment of the anti-corruption bill of the majority.
The organization noted that the planned reform does not include either bringing together various key anti-corruption functions, creating a guarantee of real independence, or fighting against cases of high-level corruption.
TI called on Parliament and the management team to reconsider their approach to Recommendation 4 and to do everything possible to ensure that this recommendation is considered implemented.
"On October 26, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Georgia introduced a draft law, which provides for the creation of a new structure - the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the State Public Prosecutor's Office. The stated goal of the authors of the draft law is to fulfill the 4th point of the 12 recommendations issued by the European Commission to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for EU membership.
According to the draft law, the function of the new agency will be to promote the fight against corruption, which it will implement by creating documents defining the anti-corruption policy, and coordinating and supervising their implementation. The head of the bureau will be appointed by the Prime Minister of Georgia.
According to "Transparency International - Georgia", the proposed reform does not respond to the 4th recommendation issued by the European Commission, which asks the country to:
"Strengthen the independence of the anti-corruption agency, which will handle all key anti-corruption functions; In particular, carefully resolve cases of high-level corruption.
The planned reform does not include the consolidation of various key anti-corruption functions, the creation of a guarantee of real independence, or the fight against cases of high-level corruption. It implies, only and only, the separation of the functions of the secretariat of the National Anti-corruption Council, which currently exists in the government administration, into a separate LSI, which is missing the request of the European Commission. In addition, the announced reform does not respond to the challenges facing the country in relation to corruption - the growth of high-level corruption and the deepening of state capture.
Therefore, only the implementation of the proposed reform cannot be considered as the implementation of the recommendation, which may deprive the country of the possibility of obtaining the candidate status. Therefore, we call on the Parliament and the management team to reconsider the approach they have chosen regarding the 4th recommendation and to do everything to ensure that this recommendation is considered implemented," the statement reads.
In order to achieve this goal, "Transparency International" recommended the consideration of the "Lelo" party's draft law.
"To achieve this goal, it is possible to use the draft law initiated by the deputies of the political party "Lelo for Georgia" in January 2022 or the ideas used in it. The said bill envisages the creation of an independent, multifunctional and investigative national anti-corruption agency, which would directly and fully satisfy the 4th recommendation of the European Commission.
Until the end of 2022, there is still enough time to fully satisfy the recommendations given to Georgia by the European Commission, which will bring the country the status of a candidate for EU membership and strengthen its democratic future.
Accordingly, we call on "Georgian Dream" not to miss this historic opportunity and to do everything so that even the most skeptical party does not have any questions as to whether Georgia has fulfilled any of the European Commission's recommendations," TI's statement reads.
