"Transparency International-Georgia" declares, that the anti-corruption bureau violates the anti-corruption law and does not disclose the results of monitoring the declarations of officials.
According to the information released by the organization, the anti-corruption bureau proactively did not publicize the results of the monitoring of declarations at the end of December 2023, which is a direct violation of the anti-corruption law.
According to their own reports, the Anti-corruption Bureau does not disclose the results of the monitoring on the declarations of 720 officials and hides the information about the results of the monitoring for each of them.
Pursuant to the Law of Georgia "On Combating Corruption", the results of the monitoring of property status declarations of officials should be proactively published at the end of each year.
In Georgia, the obligation to monitor declarations came into force in 2017, and in 2017-2022, the Public Service Bureau, the agency responsible for its implementation, proactively published the monitoring results on December 31 of each year. As a result of the amendments made to the law, from September 1, 2023, the agency responsible for monitoring declarations became the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Despite the requirement of the law, the anti-corruption bureau did not proactively publish the results of the monitoring of declarations by the end of 2023. Moreover, the results of the bureau have not been made public so far. According to the Anti-corruption Bureau, the results of monitoring of the property situation carried out in 2023 are presented in the 2023 activity report of the agency, which is not true. According to the bureau's report, in 2023, a total of 720 officials' declarations should be checked. The Bureau did not disclose whether it found violations in the declarations of these officials, what violations they had, and what type of sanction (warning or fine) they used in response. The Anti-corruption Bureau in the annual activity report submitted to the Parliament of Georgia on March 29, 2024, reflected only the general statistics of the results of the monitoring of declarations carried out by the Public Service Bureau (until September 1, 2023), without indicating the officials and violations and imposed sanctions.
As it is clear from the annual report of the Anti-corruption Bureau, the Public Service Bureau checked the declarations of a total of 500 officials in 2023, 317 of them were officials selected through the electronic system, 166 were selected by an independent commission, and 17 were selected based on substantiated applications. Out of 500 checked declarants: fined - 109 (21.8%), warned - 4 (0.8%), ended positively - 372 (74.4%), and monitoring was stopped in 15 (3%) cases. In 2 of them, the fact of official incompatibility was revealed.
The non-disclosure of the results of 220 officials under its monitoring by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, with the argument that the administrative proceedings are still ongoing, goes beyond both the requirements established by the law and the specified deadlines", the information released by the organization states.
