Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday said the new Law on the Transparency of Foreign Influence “will effectively indemnify donors from a number of inconveniences related to the ignition of radicalism and polarization by NGOs and relevant media outlets that are funded by them in Georgia.”
The PM stated that “transparency and accountability is the best way forward to avoid wrongdoing and mistakes.”
Below is his full statement.
“One of the first decisions made in the capacity of the Prime Minister of Georgia was related to the transparency of the Government of Georgia and its operation. We made principle steps from the very first day and have been making every Government Decree publicly available in the most efficient manner ever since. In addition, I urged all portfolio ministers and senior management of public institutions to leave no request for public information without a timely response. Information on the revenues and expenditures of the State Budget is fully transparent, and it is not surprising that Georgia has been ranked 1st in the world in the Open Budget Index.
When one is true and has no intention to harm anything, transparency and accountability is the best way forward to avoid wrongdoing and mistakes. It is transparency that equals a European mindset to me, while lack of transparency corresponds to non-European. It is an utterly un-European mindset, when one stays away from basic standards of transparency and has no desire to even publish an Annual Declaration of Financial Income. In cases like these, it is clear that one is harming something and needs to keep it hidden.
I am confident that the new law will effectively indemnify donors from a number of inconveniences related to the ignition of radicalism and polarization by NGOs and relevant media outlets that are funded by them in Georgia, from encouragement of revolutionary processes, from rigging the parallel election vote count, from a war propaganda, from the dissemination of pseudo-liberal ideology, from actions directed against the national and religious identity of Georgia and from attempts to weaken the public institutions of the country at the expense of disinformation.
Considering the above-mentioned actions, it is not surprising what social surveys evidence: NGOs have the least credibility among the state and social institutions in Georgia. It needs to be taken into consideration that the above-listed actions taken by NGOs and relevant media outlets get negatively reflected on the reputation of their donors as well. I believe that the Law on the Transparency of Foreign Influence will significantly contribute to overcoming this malpractice.
Un-European forces, which have been lobbying against granting the status of an EU Candidate Country to Georgia during this entire time, are now trying to convince us in the Orwellian absurd, claiming that a war is in essence a peace and that building constitutes to demolishing, progress to regress, while lack of transparency to Europe. When one assumes the Georgian society to be an Animal Farm and tries to sell a lie of this scale, one should not be surprised to lose the scarce credibility it had prior to that.
Let me repeat once again that the European mindset for me is transparency and accountability towards the general public. The Government of Georgia has already introduced a European standard of transparency. Now is the time for the NGOs and their donors to get Europeanized, which will be definitely and significantly facilitated by the Law on the Transparency of Foreign Influence.”
