Michael Jannsen of GRECO on the 4th Report on Corruption in Georgia
On January 7, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption body, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), published its fourth report on corruption in the Republic of Georgia (See page 7). The report includes 16 recommendations with the goal of reducing corruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors.
The report acknowledges considerable progress against corruption in recent years under three different governments, and highlights recent amendments to the Law on Conflict of Interest and Corruption in Public Service — specifically, a system for monitoring asset declarations for public officials — as evidence of the current government’s efforts to reduce corruption. Current anti-corruption reforms in Georgia are overseen by the Anti-corruption Interagency Coordination Council (ACC), which contains representatives from all three branches of government and civil society organizations.
The report is divided into three sections, with each section focusing on either parliamentarians, judges or prosecutors. With respect to parliamentarians, GRECO makes three recommendations to increase transparency in the legislative process by focusing on draft legislation and conflicts of interest “between specific private interests of individual members of parliament and a matter under consideration in parliamentary proceedings,” as described by the report.
Michael Jannsen from the GRECO Secretariat organized a week-long visit to Georgia for himself and the four GRECO evaluators from May 30 to June 3 last year and also co-authored the report. Janssen described the proposed system for reducing the impact of conflicts of interest. “Parliamentarians themselves should declare conflicts of interest which arise in their parliamentary work. Such cases occur quite frequently in practice, and it’s important that the public knows about these cases,” Janssen told GEORGIA TODAY.
Janssen acknowledged that enforcing such declarations can be difficult. “It would be important to have a particular body that has awareness of parliamentarians’ economic interests,” Janssen said. “It could be a parliamentary committee which deals with related issues, [such as] the Procedural Issues and Rules Committee which deals with some issues of corruption prevention and could have a stronger role in the process.”
GRECO did not investigate the impact of Parliament’s movement from Tbilisi to Kutaisi in 2012.
The report also focuses on the need for continued reform of the judicial system. After two rounds of reform supported by the Council of Europe through the Venice Commission, a third round of legislation is currently pending in parliament with a focus on “increasing the independence of the judiciary, amending the rules on appointment, the promotion and transfer of judges, automatic case assignment, [and] disciplinary procedures,” as described by the report.
In addition to supporting the pending legislation, GRECO offers six additional recommendations for the judiciary, including increased oversight of the transfer of judges and more effective and transparent disciplinary proceedings. The report also calls for the limitation of the immunity of judges to “activities relating to their participation in judicial decision-making” — which the report calls “functional immunity.”
“An important issue is the impression that people have that judges are to some extent above the law,” Janssen told us. “Our report recommends limiting immunity only to the judicial decision making [process], so that for other offenses, judges could be prosecuted like every other citizen.”
Jansen highlighted the need for reform in the disciplinary proceedings for cases brought against judges. “In the last five years, there have been sanctions in only four disciplinary cases imposed on judges,” Janssen said. “This is a very low number compared to other countries.”
Such reforms to the judiciary are intended to prevent future corruption and restore trust in the system. GRECO reports that trust in the judicial system is low compared to other state institutions. However, building trust from the public will take time: “We understand that reform is underway, but we think that more has to be done to regain the trust of citizens in the judicial branch,” Janssen said.
The report also includes six recommendations regarding prosecutors with a focus on the further depoliticization of the current system. GRECO also recommends that the rules of asset declaration outlined in the Law on Conflict of Interest and Corruption in Public Service be extended to all prosecutors.
Reforms to the prosecution service already in the implementation phase must be kept under review according to the report. “The recent reforms must be kept under to review to see how it works and ensure that the news bodies function in a transparent way. We trust that the civil society is strong in Georgia and will [draw attention to] any possible problems,” Janssen said.
Authorities in Georgia have 18 months to begin adopting the recommendations summarized in the report. By the end of June 2018, the government is expected to report back on changes made, and GRECO will then assess implementation in the second half of 2018.
As one of 49 members of GRECO, Georgia undergoes routine evaluations of corruption. The first round examined national bodies engaged in the prevention and fight against corruption, the second round focused on the executive branch of public administration, and the third on the incriminations of corruption and corruption prevention in the context of political financing. “All member states go through the same evolution rounds and are evaluated on the same topics,” Janssen said.
“All international observers agree that Georgia has made tremendous efforts and has had success in reducing corruption,” Janssen told us. “But it’s difficult to measure, of course, because corruption is a hidden crime.”
Ryan Kelley