The Georgian Chamber of Control (CoC) has stepped into the spotlight lately through several recent high-profile inquiries. This is an encouraging show of institutional strength, but it remains to be seen whether the recent positive trends in the agen

My post on jury trials generated some very useful discussion; I'd like to post some of the questions I received to clarify what I think about jury trials. I want to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to add comments to the blog, or to contact TI

Georgians are getting the right to be tried by a jury of their peers at the end of this week, on October 1. At this stage jury trials will be limited to aggravated murders, and Tbilisi. While greater involvement of the general public in practical gov

Update September 30th 2010: The operating procedures have been released; you can read them here.Tomorrow, the government will present a new set of procedures for evicting and resettling IDPs. The Standard Operating Procedures, to be presented at an o

The Georgian Parliament held the first reading of the Constitutional amendments on Friday 24 September. The reading was a surprise in that the Wednesday before, few even in Parliament seemed sure if and when it would happen. Today, although there is

TI Georgia has integrated "flattr" in its website. Flattr is not simply another social network where one can "like" another page. It is the first micropayment system that might actually work. And we are happy to adopt and promote this idea in the Sou

Last month on our blog, we investigated claims that residents of the new IDP cottage settlements had been unfairly and without warning required to pay high bills for gas and electricity. The issue still hasn’t been properly resolved, but on March 26

Over the weekend TI Georgia had the opportunity to discuss issues surrounding online social media tools with the doers and shakers of the South Caucasus, including bloggers, developers and activists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In just two d

Georgian television stations are currently owing about GEL 36 million (USD 20.6 million) in taxes and fines to the Ministry of Finance. The government recently submitted a draft amendment of the tax code to Parliament which is likely to be adopted so

Prior to the upcoming local elections, the misuse of administrative resources for election campaigning will become quite an important issue. With only a couple of months remaining until election day, the government is beginning to excessively pour mo