THE ANTI-CORRUPTION BILL FULFILLS ONLY ONE OF THE FIVE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The anti-corruption bill package initiated by the Legal Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia (№07-3/259/10) can ensure the implementation of one of the five priorities provided for in the 4th recommendation of the European Commission, while the other four will remain unfulfilled.

According to the current legislation, the investigation of corruption crimes falls within the competence of the following agencies:

• Prosecutor's Office
• State Security Service
• The General Inspection of the Ministry of Justice (the investigative jurisdiction of ​​criminal cases is determined by an order of the Prosecutor General)
• The Civil Service Bureau is entrusted with monitoring the property declarations of public officials (the head of the Bureau is appointed by the Prime Minister)
• The State Audit Service is in charge of auditing the expenditures of political parties

And the Government of Georgia has established the "Interagency Coordination Council to Combat Corruption" with the view to determining a common anti-corruption policy, developing a national anti-corruption strategy and action plan of Georgia, and monitoring their implementation.

The European Commission held that the situation under the current legislation is not sufficient to ensure the effectiveness of the fight against corruption, noted several legislative gaps, and put forward corresponding requirements:

1. The enforcement of anti-corruption policy is ineffective, since the last time the Anti-corruption Council met was in 2019; no national anti-corruption strategy and action plan are adopted.
2. Asset declarations of public officials do not require the inclusion of family members of a respective official. Therefore, the scope of declarations, implementation, and monitoring should be expanded;
3. It is necessary to strengthen the guarantees of protection for whistleblowers;
4. There is no unified independent anti-corruption agency, which would be equipped with the following powers: responding to conflicts of interest, inspecting assets declarations, auditing expenses of political parties, and protecting whistleblowers. It is necessary to strengthen administrative capacity to effectively control the financing of political parties and election campaigns.
5. There are no specialized law enforcement bodies or specialized courts, which would be entitled to fight corruption in the highest hierarchies of the government. It is necessary to strengthen the investigation of high-level corruption.

To address the above issues, the European Commission issued a recommendation, according to which it is necessary to create an independent anti-corruption agency that would bring together all the main anti-corruption mechanisms, primarily for the rigorous investigation of high-level corruption cases.

According to the submitted draft law, the authority to determine the general anti-corruption policy will be transferred from the Government of Georgia to the Parliament of Georgia, and its implementation will be coordinated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. This is important for the approval of the overall anti-corruption policy through public discussion and its effective implementation, which could not be achieved by the Government of Georgia.  

Despite important changes, the bill needs to be improved with respect to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The draft law does not envisage assigning important functions to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The authority to investigate corruption crimes remains with those who currently have this function. Moreover, according to the bill, the Bureau must "carry out its activities independently", which calls into question whether the Bureau, the head of which is appointed by the Prime Minister from among the candidates nominated by the Competition Commission, will be independent; The Competition Commission consists of 7 members, 5 of whom are high-ranking officials of the state government.

Therefore, in order to fully ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission, we call on the Parliament of Georgia to make the following changes in the main draft law under consideration and corresponding laws, as well as to carry out other actions:

1. For ensuring the functional and institutional independence of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, it should be granted the authority to investigate corruption-related crimes, protect whistleblowers, respond to conflicts of interest, and carry out other important functions, and its head should be elected by the Parliament of Georgia.
2. The validity, implementation and monitoring of asset declarations of public officials  shall be expanded;
3. The legal guarantees for the protection of whistleblowers shall be strengthened;
4. In addition, the Parliament should immediately implement appropriate oversight/supervisory measures to increase the effectiveness of its response to high-level corruption cases.