Promoting Transparency of Party Finances

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Political party financing is recognized as one of the most important parts of political processes internationally. It directly influences the ways in which political parties communicate with their constituencies prior to and in-between elections, and the approaches they take to engage in general politics. Yet, In Georgia this topic has not been studied properly. To date there are no comprehensive monitoring or analytical reports that would look at the evolution of political party financing after the change of government in 2003 and its effects on shaping national politics. Transparency International Georgia’s project on Promoting Transparency of Party Finances has four objectives.

These are:

1. Identifying main shortcomings in the regulatory framework governing party financing and proposing concrete recommendations for their eradication;

2. Identifying main shortcomings in the enforcement of existing regulations and proposing concrete recommendations for their prevention in the future;

3. Seeking and addressing concrete cases of corruption in party financing;

4. Promoting transparency and public awareness of important issues connected with party financing.

For the purposes of this project, TI Georgia plans to divide party finances into three main categories:

1. Annual incomes of political parties that receive funding from the State Budget;

2. State funds provided to the selected political parties to audit voter lists prior to the 2010 local government elections;

3. Funds raised by political parties for campaign activities prior to the 2010 local government elections.

TI Georgia will scrutinize these different types of funds and their spending individually and produce separate documents summarizing each of the three.