In 2023, the Government of Georgia discussed at least 531 draft decrees in 48 sessions, none of which has been made public to date. "Transparency International-Georgia" disseminates information about this.
In addition, according to their reports, the government did not publish the agenda of 4 out of 48 sessions. The non-governmental organization explains that it is impossible to obtain documents even by requesting public information.
"Transparency International - Georgia" claims that the government has been making decisions behind closed doors for more than 3 years, and with this approach, the government not only reduces trust in it, but also raises suspicions that the goal may be to hide problematic decisions.
"23% of last year's decrees - 122 out of 531 - related to the transfer of state property to specific individuals in various forms or revision of the conditions they took before the state, which carries the risk of corruption. This risk is supported by the existence of cases revealed by investigative journalists in the past regarding the alleged illegal transfer of state property.
In addition to the fact that by not publishing the decrees, the government sets a bad example to other public institutions, it simultaneously violates several legal acts, namely: the right to access to public information guaranteed by Article 18 of the Constitution of Georgia; the principle of openness of Article 10 of the General Administrative Code, the rules established for the provision of public information determined by the third chapter of the same Code; the government regulation regarding the uploading of decrees on the website within a maximum of 3 days; Government's resolution on proactive publication of information.
We call on the government administration to abandon the harmful practice of hiding decrees, comply with the requirements of the law and publish all documents both on its official website and in the legislative gazette, as well as to comply with all the requirements stipulated by the law on providing public information," the information released by the organization states.
