Confidence Group to Be Formed in Georgia’s Parliament

TBILISI - Georgia’s Defense and Security Committee of Parliament is forming a Confidence Group which will carry out budgetary control of special programs and confidential activities of the executive agencies of Georgia.

The group consists of five members. One member and its chair will be the Head of Defense and Security Committee, Irakli Sesiashvili. The group also includes one member of the ruling party Georgian Dream (GD), one Majoritarian MP who got the most votes, one member from the main opposition party United National Movement (UNM) and one member of the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia(APG).

The UNM representative in the group will be Irakli Abesadze, while the APG decided to send Irma Inashvili as their representative in the Confidence Group.

Sesiashvili says that forming the group should be concluded by the end of the year and added that the GD would have internal consultations about the candidates of two other members of the group.

Every candidate of the Confidence Group will be studied by the State Security Service.

“Each candidate of the group will pass through a procedure of credibility and reliability and this is a standard procedure for all members,” said Sesiashvili.

In early 2014, the Parliament simplified rule of composition of the Group of Confidence. Previously, a parliamentary vote was required for endorsing members of the group, but later this rule was changed and the majority and minority parties name their representatives for the group membership directly.

By Thea Morrison