Monitoring Georgia's Anti-Corruption Commitments

• TI Georgia's 2010 report: Monitoring Georgia's Anti-Corruption Commitments [1] (funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Similar assessments for this regional TI-initiative were conducted by TI chapters in Armenia [2] and Azerbaijan [3].

Georgia's International Anti-Corruption Commitments

• United Nations Convention Against Corruption - UNCAC (2009) [4]. Georgia acceded the Convention [5] on November 8, 2008 (meaning that it joined or ratified the Charter without taking part in negotiations).
• Council of Europe: Civil Law Convention on Corruption (1999) [6]
  Georgia signed [7] the Convention in 1999, it became Georgian law on November 1st, 2003. The Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption is the first attempt to define common international rules in the field of civil law and corruption. In particular, it requires states to provide legal remedies, including compensation for damages, for persons who have suffered damage as a result of acts of corruption.
  The Convention provides for monitoring by GRECO, the Group of States against Corruption, which was launched by the Council of Europe in 1999 to monitor the compliance with Council of Europe anti-corruption standards established in several instruments. Technical assistance programmes are linked to the review process.
  A summary review [8] of the Convention is available on TI's website [9]
• Council of Europe: Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (1999) [10]. Georgia ratified the Convention on January 10, 2008 [11]; It entered into force on May 1st, 2008. The obligations of the parties to the Council of Europe Convention can be divided into five categories: 1. Criminalisation: the Convention obligates signatory states to establish as criminal offences active and passive bribery of domestic and foreign officials and members of assemblies, as well as bribery of officials of international organisations. Active and passive bribery of private sector employees must also be made a criminal offence. The Convention further requires states to establish as offences trading in influence, money laundering and accounting offences connected with corruption offences. The Protocol adds to the criminal offences covered, extending the prohibition to active or passive bribery of domestic arbitrators, bribery of foreign arbitrators, and bribery of domestic or foreign jurors. 2. Money laundering: States are required to treat concealment of the proceeds of corruption as a money laundering offence, with certain limited exceptions. 3. Provisions regarding private sector: the Convention requires states to establish the liability of companies and to prohibit accounting practices used in order to bribe foreign public officials or to hide such bribery. Thus parties are required to prohibit the establishment of off-the-books accounts and similar practices used to conceal bribery. 4. International cooperation: given that foreign bribery involves actors in different jurisdictions and that international financial channels are often used to carry out or hide international bribery, the Convention prescribes mutual legal assistance between countries and the exchange of information. It also makes extradition easier in relation to offences governed by the Convention and provides for seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of corruption. 5. Monitoring:The Convention provides for monitoring by GRECO, the Group of States against Corruption, which was launched by the Council of Europe in 1999 to monitor the compliance with Council of Europe anti-corruption standards established in several instruments. Technical assistance programmes are linked to the review process.

  TI has created a summary [12] of this Convention. More information is available on the websites of Transaprency International [12] and the Council of Europe [13].

• Council of Europe: Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption [14]. Georgia has not signed [14] this protocol, which "extends the scope of the Convention to arbitrators in commercial, civil and other matters, as well as to jurors, thus complementing the Convention’s provisions aimed at protecting judicial authorities from corruption."

• Georgia (which is not a member of the OECD [15]) has not ratified the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions [16], which has been adopted by 32 OECD members as well as seven non-members. For more information on the actual enforcement of the OECD anti-bribery convention by participating governments, please see TI's 2010 progress report [17].

• In-depth resources on anti-corruption conventions and international instruments are available on the Transparency International website [18].
• OECD Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. [19] Istanbul Anti-corruption action plan. Second round of monitoring report. March 2010.

National Anti-Corruption Commitments

• National Anti-corruption Strategy and Decree of the President of Georgia on Approval of Georgian National Anti-corruption Strategy (2010) [20]
• Government Ordinance on Approval of Georgia's National Anti-Corruption Strategy Implementation Action Plan (2005) [21]
• Presidential Decree on the Approval Georgia's National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2005) [22]