In 2022, the Anti-Corruption Bureau was established following the European Commission's recommendation. However, rather than enhancing efforts to combat and prevent corruption, it has significantly undermined standards of transparency and monitoring in public officials' asset declarations. The Anti-Corruption Bureau violates the Law on the Fight Against Corruption by concealing the results of 2023 monitoring of public officials' asset declarations.

How does the Anti-Corruption Bureau break the law?

According to the Law of Georgia on the Fight Against Corruption,^[1] public officials’ asset declarations monitoring results must be proactively published at the end of the monitoring year.

In Georgia, the obligation to monitor assets declarations came into effect in 2017. From 2017 to 2022, the Civil Service Bureau (CSB), the agency responsible for its implementation during that period, proactively published the monitoring results on December 31 of each year. Following amendments to the law, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) became responsible for monitoring public officials’ asset declarations starting from September 1, 2023.

Despite the legal requirement, the Anti-Corruption Bureau did not proactively publish the results of the asset declaration monitoring by the end of 2023. Moreover, the results of the monitoring have not been published to date. According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau,^[2] the results of the 2023 asset declaration monitoring are presented in the agency’s Annual Report for 2023.^[3] However, this claim appears to be inaccurate.

What information does the Anti-Corruption Bureau conceal?

According to the Bureau’s report, 720^[4] public officials' asset declarations were subject to monitoring in 2023.[5] This included 317^[6] officials selected randomly via the electronic system, another 317^[7] officials chosen by the Independent Commission, and additional public officials whose declarations were requested through substantiated written statements.

• The Anti-Corruption Bureau did not proactively disclose the results of the 2023 monitoring of public officials' asset declarations, and it constitutes a clear breach of the anti-corruption law.
• The Anti-corruption Bureau does not publicly disclose the results of the asset declaration monitoring for 720 public officials. The bureau conceals information on how the monitoring concluded in each case. For instance, in 2023, public officials including Irakli Garibashvili, Irakli Kobakhidze, Irakli Shotadze and his deputies, Grigol Liluashvili and his deputies, as well as members of parliament like Shalva Papuashvili, Mamuka Mdinaradze, Anri Okhanashvili, Dimitri Samsakhadze, Viktor Jafaridze, Dimitri Khundadze, Nino Tsilosani, Mikheil Kavelashvili, Aluda Ghudushauri, and Beka Odisharia, and judges such as Shalva Tadumadze, Levan Murusidze, Mikheil Chinchaladze, Dimitri Gvritishvili, and Vasil Mshvenieradze were in the monitoring list. The Bureau conceals information regarding whether there were violations in these officials' declarations, the nature of any violations found, and the respective sanctions applied (such as warnings or fines).
• The Anti-corruption Bureau's annual report, presented to the Parliament of Georgia[8] on March 29, 2024, only provided general statistics from the monitoring of declarations conducted by the Civil Service Bureau (up to September 1, 2023), omitting details on public officials, violations and imposed sanctions. The Anti-Corruption Bureau did not disclose the results of the declarations monitored by it (between September 1 and December 10, 2023)^[9], not even general statistics. The Bureau failed to disclose the monitoring results even in response to a public information request. ^[10]

According to the Anti-corruption Bureau’s annual report, 500 asset declarations were monitored by the Civil Service Bureau in 2023: 317 declarations selected through the electronic system, 166 selected by the Independent Commission, and 17 - based on substantiated statements. Out of the 500 declarations monitored by the Civil Service Bureau: 109 public officials (21.8%) were fined, 4 (0.8%) were warned, and no violations found in 372 (74.4%) asset declarations. Monitoring was suspended in 15 cases (3%). Besides, CSB identified 2 cases of incompatibility of duties.

However, in addition to presenting general statistics, the Anti-corruption Bureau did not disclose specific details such as the list of public officials monitored by the Civil Service Bureau, the individual monitoring outcomes for each official, types of violations found in their declarations, and the corresponding sanctions imposed by the Bureau, including fines or warnings. Since the inception of the declaration monitoring mechanism, the Civil Service Bureau has proactively and comprehensively published this information per legal requirements.

According to the Bureau's annual report, from September 1, 2023, to the end of the year, the Anti-Corruption Bureau was tasked with monitoring 220 asset declarations. Out of these, 145 were chosen by the Independent Commission, while the remaining 75 were included following substantiated statements.

Unlike the general statistics of the 2023 declaration monitoring results conducted by the Civil Service Bureau, the Anti-Corruption Bureau did not disclose any results or aggregate data for the declarations it monitored. According to its annual report, the Bureau stated that “the administrative proceedings initiated to monitor the declarations are ongoing, and the results will be detailed in the 2024 report.” ^[11]

What does the Bureau lie about in the report?

The anti-corruption bureau's decision to withhold the results of its monitoring of 220 officials, citing ongoing administrative proceedings, surpasses legal requirements and exceeds legally prescribed deadlines:

• As mandated by law, the monitoring schedule for declarations is pre-established according to the order of the Bureau’s head, with declarations distributed across upcoming months for review.
• Moreover, as stipulated by law,^[12]  the head of the 'Department for Monitoring Officials' Asset Declarations' must submit a report on monitoring results to the Bureau's head no later than December 10. The monitoring results must be proactively disclosed by the end of the year.
• According to the declaration monitoring instruction^[13] approved by the decree of the Government of Georgia, the administrative proceedings[14] initiated based on the asset declaration monitoring must be carried out within the time limits established by the General Administrative Code of Georgia. In addition, as per Article 20, Paragraph 3 of the Law on Fight against Corruption, appealing a decree imposing a fine for violations in an official's asset declaration does not suspend its enforcement.

The Anti-corruption Bureau's claim that administrative proceedings are ongoing for all 220 declarations as of March 29, 2024, and therefore they cannot disclose the results, fails to meet the above-mentioned legal requirements established by Georgia's legislation.

Notably, the officials monitored by the Anti-Corruption Bureau include the Prime Minister, 9 ministers, 13 deputy ministers, 68 members of the Georgian Parliament, 5 judges, 2 prosecutors, and heads of the Government of the Autonomous Republics. The bureau indicated in the 2023 annual report, that monitoring results of these officials will be included in the 2024 annual report, to be published in March 2025. According to the law, these results were due to be published by the end of 2023.

Moreover, it should be emphasized that disclosing general statistics (in this case, incomplete one) of the asset declarations monitoring in the annual activity report, does not exempt the Bureau from publishing the results of declarations monitoring. In addition to being a legal requirement, this is further supported by the monitoring practices observed in previous years. While the annual reports of the Civil Service Bureau duly included comprehensive general statistics and information regarding declaration monitoring, as required by the law, the Bureau proactively published a separate, detailed report on the monitoring results at the end of December of each year. ^[15]

Following the assessments by the European Commission and the Venice Commission, a critical focus in Georgia's path to EU accession is advancing anti-corruption reforms. This includes bolstering the political and institutional independence of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and tackling high-level corruption.^[16]

Notably, one of the Venice Commission's recommendations focuses on enhancing the monitoring system for public officials’ asset declarations. The Commission calls on the Government of Georgia to utilize asset declaration monitoring in order to reveal cases of illicit enrichment and to identify potential conflicts of interest.^[17] However, thus far, the monitoring of declarations has failed to expose any cases of illicit enrichment involving high-ranking officials. In recent years, no declarations have been forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office as a result of this monitoring. Meanwhile, the list of alleged cases^[18] of incompatibility of duties, conflict of interest, and corruption, including illicit enrichment, identified by non-governmental organizations and investigative journalists continues to grow.

We urge the Anti-Corruption Bureau to disclose the results of the asset declaration monitoring for 2023 in compliance with the Law of Georgia on Fight Against Corruption.