Monitoring Report

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Monitoring Report ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ANTI-CORRUPTION NETWORK FOR EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA ISTANBUL ANTI-CORRUPTION ACTION PLAN Third Round of Monitoring GEORGIA Monitoring Report The report was adopted at the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan plenary meeting on 25 September 2013 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. Contents Executive summary .......................................................................................................................... 3 Anti-corruption policy .................................................................................................................................... 3 Criminalisation of corruption ....................................................................................................................... 3 Prevention of corruption ............................................................................................................................... 4 Third round of monitoring ............................................................................................................ 6 Country background information ............................................................................................... 8 Economic and social situation ...................................................................................................................... 8 Political system ............................................................................................................................................... 8 Trends in corruption ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................... 11 1. Anti-corruption policy ............................................................................................................. 13 Anti-corruption policy documents and surveys ..................................................................................... 13 Public participation, awareness raising and public education ............................................................ 18 Specialised anti-corruption policy and co-ordination institutions ..................................................... 22 2. Criminalisation of corruption ............................................................................................... 28 3. Prevention of corruption ....................................................................................................... 45 Integrity of public service and promoting transparency and reducing discretion in public administration .............................................................................................................................................. 45 Public financial control and audit ............................................................................................................. 55 Public procurement ..................................................................................................................................... 62 Access to information ................................................................................................................................. 73 Political corruption ...................................................................................................................................... 82 Integrity in the judiciary ............................................................................................................................. 92 Integrity in the private sector ..................................................................................................................100 Summary table............................................................................................................................. 107 Annex .............................................................................................................................................. 108 Statistics on investigation, prosecution, adjudication and sanctioning of corruption criminal offences (2010-2012) ................................................................................................................................108 2 Executive summary This report analyses progress made by Georgia in carrying out anti-corruption reforms and implementing recommendations received under the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan since the second monitoring round in 2010. The report also analyses recent developments and provides new recommendations in three areas: anti-corruption policy and institutions, criminalisation and prevention of corruption. Anti-corruption policy Georgia has achieved significant progress in reducing corruption which is reflected in various perception surveys and international ratings. In 2010-2013 Government of Georgia continued implementation of important reforms aimed at further decreasing level of corruption. In 2010, shortly after adoption of the IAP Second Round Monitoring report, Georgia passed important anti-corruption policy documents – a strategy and an action plan. However, they were not based on a detailed analysis of implementation of the previous policy documents and on relevant surveys. The 2010 action plan contained indicators for evaluation of its implementation, but many of them were flawed and not properly measurable. Mechanism for monitoring of implementation of these documents was not sufficiently robust; while mentioning of the Anti-Corruption Council was included in the law, its effectiveness remained low and its support secretariat did not possess necessary resources. The Government, starting from 2013, have been addressing these issues and launched revision of the anti-corruption strategy and action plan with active and meaningful involvement of the civil society. The monitoring report welcomes this and recommends also raising the capacity of the co-ordination body – the Anti-Corruption Council by considering different reform options and by reinforcing it secretariat. Monitoring report also finds that there were no systematic anti-corruption information and awareness raising campaigns by the government targeting Georgian population. It is true that in Georgia people can directly feel tangible results of the anti-corruption measures, but a regular awareness raising about specific benefits and achievements would be useful. Criminalisation of corruption Georgian legislation has mostly been aligned with international standards with regard to corruption incriminations. Georgia was the first IAP country to introduce liability of legal persons for corruption in 2006; however, there has been a total lack of enforcement of relevant provisions, which may be attributed to conservative practice of prosecutors, lack of awareness and targeted training. Previous monitoring report recommended Georgia to reduce minimum level of sanction for passive bribery, which was not accomplished and has been compensated in practice by extensive use of plea bargaining. The latter, however, raises concerns as it allows wide prosecutorial discretion, which, taken together with insufficient judicial control and high rate of pre-trial detention, creates risks of abuse of power and forced self-incrimination. An important reform was implemented in May 2013 to ensure autonomy of criminal prosecutions – the Law on Prosecution Service was amended to exclude minister of justice 3 from the prosecutorial hierarchy and eliminate possibilities of his direct interference in criminal cases. Some issues remain though: report recommends reviewing procedures for appointment and dismissal of the Chief Prosecutor, as well as procedures and grounds for disciplining and dismissal of other prosecutors – it is necessary to ensure autonomy and effectiveness of prosecution in corruption cases. It also recommends considering removal of investigation function from the prosecution service to avoid conflict of interests. Prevention of corruption In the area of civil service a number of legislative amendments were introduced during the last three years; albeit important and positive, they did not represent a systemic reform based on a clear vision of the future of the civil service in Georgia. Therefore, the conceptual direction of the civil service reform is yet to be determined in an inclusive manner and implemented by the government – this process has been started in 2013. In practice civil service has been affected by political influence and its neutrality and impartiality were not ensured – including after October 2012 elections. Transparency and predictability of the remuneration of civil servants still remains a serious concern as the procedure for determining the salary, bonus and additional pay is not unified in the civil service, being highly discretional. A general legal framework on conflicts of interest is in place, but the clear mechanisms for the enforcement of conflict of interest rules are lacking since there is no central authority to enforce and monitor the conflict of interest legislation. The Government has started analysing possibilities for introducing asset declarations verification mechanisms and taken initial steps to introduce such mechanism. The legislative framework for the system of internal audit in the public sector was established by adoption of the Public Internal Financial Control Law and internal audit standards and guidelines. The central harmonization unit
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