Foreword
As we enter in our second decade of work, Transparency International Georgia is one of the leading and most reputable non-governmental organizations in the country. Throughout these years Transparency International Georgia has worked hard to place and maintain such issues as corruption, transparency and accountability high on the [1]government’s agenda. We managed to establish a strong reputation for measuring [2] and combating corruption. In the next four years we will continue to work with determination and passion to achieve our goals that can create an impact in the country. In attaining tangible results the main goal for the next four years is to continue analysis but also to improve advocacy, use technology to reach people more effectively in all undertaken work, and engage people in the organization’s mission in a way that empowers them.
Toward that end, we commit to work hard, to engage with all individuals and groups of society – the government and ruling party, opposition parties, national and local civil society organizations, media, academia, private sector representatives, the diplomatic community and international organizations – who are committed to promoting transparency and accountability in Georgia. While operating in an often highly politicized environment, we actively work against the notion that sides need to be taken. Transparency International Georgia undertakes to be open, honest and accountable in its relationships with everyone it works with.
Introduction / Surrounding Situation
Transparency International Georgia is an independent non-governmental organization based in Tbilisi, Georgia. We are a member of the Transparency International (TI) movement, which is made up of nearly 100 independent National Chapters, approximately 30 Individual Members, and an International Secretariat in Berlin with staff and volunteer Senior Advisers. We are the TI National Chapter in Georgia.
Transparency is the primary tool that we use to promote accountability and advocate for positive change in all sectors of public life in Georgia. We seek to cooperate with and engage all individuals and groups of society who are committed to promoting transparency and accountability in Georgia.
Our work takes place in the context of a Georgia that has seen rapid and continuing changes over the past decade. Since 2003, petty corruption and bribery of government employees has been largely eliminated, leading to major improvements in public safety and perceptions of corruption. However, a worrying lack of transparency exists in the higher levels of government and the commercial sector which could allow corruption to flourish there. In addition, we have witnessed consolidation of power within the Executive, weak oversight from the media, and the use of government apparatuses to entrench the position of the ruling party ahead of elections in 2012 and 2013, all of which may hinder the progress of democratic reforms in the future. The coming years thus will be a crossroads for Georgia: with Parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of 2012, Presidential elections for 2013, and major constitutional changes scheduled to take effect thereafter, Georgia has the opportunity to solidify its gains through the development of democratic checks and balances as well as a strong opposition—but if this opportunity is not embraced, Georgia’s progress may be slowed and even reversed by the influence of those for whom maintaining the status quo carries many personal benefits.
Many of these actors are able to use opacity in governmental processes to hide their actions and avoid public scrutiny. At this juncture, Transparency International Georgia is dedicated to undertake in-depth research and analysis in critical areas in order to discover who these actors are and the ways in which they may influence Georgian policy and practice, so that reforms can be carried out and institutions strengthened. Also active involvement through targeted advocacy for changes is important.
Transparency International is dedicated to helping Georgia build upon past successes in promoting transparency and combating corruption, to enable continuous improvements in governance, the democratic environment, and quality of life for all Georgians in the years to come.
Organization
Vision
Transparency International Georgia seeks to make Georgia a country which is free of corruption in all areas of public society, where people are a part of the policy making process, and where transparency and openness in government and the commercial sector are routine rather than rarities, supporting an engaged citizenry and a vibrant and fair democratic environment.
Mission
Transparency International Georgia's main aim is to support building and empowering state institutions, develop good governance and the rule of law, and ensure the transparency and direct accountability of the state institutions. To this end Transparency International Georgia works with all interested parties to identify sectors in Georgia where a lack of transparency is especially problematic, increase these areas’ transparency by creating thorough, objective, and insightful analyses, and advocate for positive policy change through engaging and innovative public activities.
Guiding principles:
Thorough, objective, insightful analysis is our core institutional strength, and provides the informational foundation on which our other activities are based. Over the next four years, TI Georgia will build on existing strengths, experience and expertise and work to further improve the impact of the research and analysis it produces. The challenge is to produce reliable, fact-based and fair analysis that has a level of depth and details necessary to influence and shape policy debates, while ensuring that we communicate our work so that interested citizens who are not experts in specific policy fields can easily follow and understand our research and recommendations.
We must effectively employ advocacy to ensure that past success in increasing transparency can be solidified, and future goals achieved. In the past, TI Georgia’s advocacy was more often reactive than pro-active, responding to new initiatives and policy proposals coming out of Parliament or the executive. With the expertise and contacts of the global TI global network, we are well-positioned to advocate for improvements. As we foster engagement with larger groups of society, we seek to represent more voices and more people with our advocacy efforts and will work to focus on pro-active advocacy, to trigger and shape discussions about political accountability and the strengthening of democratic structures in Georgia.
We strive to promote broad public engagement in our work so that Transparency International Georgia’s activities reflect the needs and interests of parties from all parts of Georgian public society. We will explore new ways of engaging people and communicating in a way that makes our research and analysis interesting and relevant for larger audiences. At the same time, we want to ensure that our communication is not a one-way channel - we want citizens to share their views and engage them, to work with us towards making a positive impact in their communities and reaching common goals. TI Georgia in all its activities will support gender mainstreaming, ensuring that both men and women are equally involved.
We seek to support our all our activities with innovative uses of technology, recognizing that new technologies will allow our work to be more collaborative and thus offer increasingly powerful ways of improving the scope, reach, and impact of our work. TI Georgia will extensively use new tools and technologies to share its work, engage in discussions, receive information and feedback, and connect groups of individuals who care about similar issues. At the same time, new technological tools allow for new forms of communication between citizens and authorities, creating a public sphere that allows for individuals to have their voices heard and their concerns being taken seriously.
External Strategic Priorities
In the following four years TI Georgia will concentrate on the the following thematic priorities:
Strengthening democratic institutions
We believe that an imbalance of power between Georgia’s democratic institutions which erodes structural checks and balances is the greatest threat to continued development of Georgia’s democracy. We will work to improve the function of the following institutions of democracy:
Parliament: The Georgian Parliament does not, for the most part, fulfill its role of overseeing the Executive. We will call attention to this deficiency and advocate for the Parliament to take a stronger role.
Elections: The structure of Georgia’s electoral system plays a major role in the ability of one party to consolidate power. We will advocate for improvements to election law, engage in voter education, and monitor the financing of political parties and the government’s use of resources during campaigning in 2012 and 2013, with the goal of enhancing opportunities for opposition representation.
Judiciary: The judicial system in Georgia is not sufficiently independent from the ruling party and the Executive. We will engage in systematic monitoring of judicial procedures, provide recommendations for structural improvements to the judiciary, and undertake legal aid which will test the judiciary’s role in providing redress for government malfeasance. Our goal is for the judiciary to be independent and fair in all cases, including those where government interests are at stake.
Local Government: Local governments play a major role in the distribution of government funds and the development of the regions of Georgia, but so far little is known about the officials who hold positions in local government, and there are troubling reports of local officials threatening journalists who start asking too many questions. We will ensure that local governments receive the attention they deserve by expanding our FixMyStreet platform to parts of Georgia beyond Tbilisi, by monitoring the business interests of local government officials, and the usage of local government budgets to support central government goals.
Media: Media in Georgia is highly polarized and often lacks objectivity. We will work to make the connections between government and media more transparent, and to highlight biases in broadcast media.
Promoting Open Governance and Open Data: Despite some improvements in this area, many parts of the government are still opaque, and treatment of freedom-of-information requests remains inconsistent (and frustratingly paper-based). In addition, the usefulness of the government’s existing open data websites is often hampered by designs which make it difficult or impossible to use the data generated by these systems for in-depth investigations. We will work to increase the amount of open data available in Georgia as a tool for public accountability and improve understanding and awareness of open data concepts.
Georgian Anti-Corruption Council and Georgia’s international anti-corruption obligations. We will work on promoting the improvement and implementation of the anti-corruption and integrity rules, mechanisms and policies and ensure that reforms in these fields remain on the government’s agenda. Moreover, we will closely monitor the implementation of international commitments undertaken by the Georgian government in this area.
Shedding light on areas where government and private sector overlap
Georgia’s rapid and sometimes haphazard development leaves many opportunities for corruption and misuse of resources, while government interference in certain markets can lead to economic loss and harm to democratic institutions. We have identified six areas where cooperation between the public and commercial sectors requires increased transparency.
Property Rights: Our legal aid work has identified that development and infrastructure works in Georgia are often accompanied by systematic property rights violations. We will continue to raise awareness of this issue with donors and international corporations taking part in development projects in Georgia so that infrastructure doesn’t come at the cost of property rights.
State Procurement: We will undertake continuous monitoring of the data on Georgia’s procurement data portal, in order to detect and identify indicators of collusion or improper political influence on the procurement process.
Quasi-Governmental organizations: We will increase the transparency of legal entities of public law (LEPLs) and state-owned corporations by analyzing their ownership, revenues and activities, and the effect of their actions on Georgia’s markets and development.
Competition Environment: We will work on promoting the establishment of an effective competition framework, including sound legislation and an independent, transparent and well-resourced competition agency. We will monitor this agency to ensure that it is receives sufficient resources and is properly structured so as to effectively ensure competition in the Georgian economy. Raise public awareness of competition-related issues.
Privatizations: The government often privatizes assets in return for agreements to invest in their improvement rather than high purchase prices. We will monitor past and future privatization deals to ensure that these investment promises are being fulfilled, and to monitor the fairness and openness of privatization auctions.
Government-Business Relations and Revolving Door Regulations: While the current Georgian government has been largely successful in addressing the problem of petty corruption, there are valid concerns about the persistence of abuse of power for personal gain at the higher tiers of public administration. We will work to promote the establishment of sound conflict of interest rules and revolving-door regulations, as well as the relevant enforcement mechanisms.
Internal Strategic Priorities
Assessment of Resources and Expertise
First, we will continue putting emphasis on quality of work rather than on quantity. Transparency International Georgia will not engage in activities and projects in which it has very limited or no expertise at all.
Second, we will strengthen our ability to demonstrate and communicate results concerning the impact of our work, so that our work is better understood and more attractive to the community and relevant stakeholders.
Third, we will seek to widen and diversify our fundraising. Over the next four years, we will seek to develop close relationships with companies that strive to practice and promote integrity in their sectors and hope to make a number of enterprises into regular financial contributors to TI Georgia. We believe that especially foreign-owned and publicly listed companies that are also subject to Western compliance rules and European and American anti-corruption legislation might be potential supporters of Transparency International Georgia, as these companies tend to be less affected by political pressure.
Staff
TI Georgia currently has a full-time staff of more than 30, excluding several volunteers and interns, who are working in three offices. The organization’s main office is located in the center of Tbilisi, with a second office located inside the Georgian Parliament. Since spring 2011, TI Georgia has also been operating an office in the city of Batumi.
Most of the employees of the organization hold post-graduate degrees. 16 staff members have a Master’s degree, seven of whom hold two Masters, mostly from Western European universities, and two employees hold a Ph.D. degree, also from Western European universities.
TI Georgia has a well-established internship policy. Once per three months an advertisement is placed on jobs.ge [3] announcing recruitment of interns. Usually, two or three interns are selected, one of which is placed in the Parliament office. TI Georgia also accepts foreign interns, which usually have their internship with the organization during summer, allowing Georgian and foreign interns to work together on a joint initiative and learn from each other.
TI Georgia is an equal opportunity employer and employs Georgian and non-Georgian citizens under the same terms and conditions.
TI Georgia’s Board
The Board [4] is the highest governing body of TI Georgia. It sets the main strategy and direction of TI Georgia’s activity. In addition, the board oversees the work of the Executive Director.
Financial Management
TI Georgia currently has a financial manager and two accountants who manage the organization’s financial dealings, under supervision of the Executive Director. Finances are managed with a double-entry bookkeeping system, using the accounting software Quickbooks. TI Georgia’s finances are audited annually by an independent, rotating Georgian auditor.