Parliament Adopts Majority’s Bill on Covert Investigation
Georgian parliament on Friday adopted a Bill on Convert Investigation proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party.
In the legislative body with 150 lawmakers, where GD has 115 MPs, 89 voted in favor and 20 were against.
The legislative package provides for the creation of a legal entity of public law (LEPL) the Operative-Technical Agency of Georgia, which will be responsible for covert surveillance. The Agency will be under the supervision of the State Security Service (SSS), however, the agency will be accountable to the Prime Minister and will submit a generalized report of its activities annually to the PM.
The responsibilities of the Agency will include: hidden surveillance of phone communication; retrieving information from computer systems; control of post office transfers; secret audio and video surveillance; and photographic surveillance.
The initiative of the new bill on covert investigative actions was raised after the Constitutional Court of Georgia ruled on April 14, 2016, that the existing model of surveillance, with the Interior Ministry and Personal Data Protection Inspector as key players, needed to be changed.
The Court stated that the legislation allowing the police to have direct, unrestricted access to telecom operators’ networks to monitor communications was unconstitutional and set March 31, 2017 as the deadline for implementing the court’s decision and replacing the existing surveillance regulations with new ones.
Now, according to the bill, access to surveillance will be in the hands of the new LEPL under the SSS, the Personal Data Protection Inspector, and the Judge of the Supreme Court.
The non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Public Defender Ucha Nanuashviili, and the opposition parties criticized the bill, demanding the creation of an independent agency, not under the SSS and having no professional interest in surveillance.
Opposition party United National Movement (UNM) says the bill does not answer the verdict of the Constitutional Court, which said that the “creation, possession, and administration of technical means of obtaining personal information in real time and having direct access to personal information using this means, by an agency that has investigative functions or is professionally interested in familiarizing itself with this information, creates an excessive threat of unsubstantiated interference with personal lives.”
“The commission, led by the SSS head, will choose three candidates for the post of Agency head,” said UNM member Akaki Minashvili. “After this, the candidates will be presented to the PM who will chose one. This means that the Agency is not independent. It is under the direct influence of the SSS.”
Members of the Parliamentary minority, Movement for Freedom - European Georgia, walked out of the plenary session in protest during the discussions. The party believes the new law will "rudely interfere with people’s personal lives”.
“We do not want to participate in this farce and so we are leaving the session,” Otar Kakhidze from European Georgia stated.
Vice Speaker of Parliament and Georgian Dream party member Tamar Chugoshvili finds the new draft "balanced”, while majority member Giorgi Volsky says the implementation of the version offered by the NGOs and the opposition requires more budgetary funds than the bill prepared by the ruling party.
“Financially and technically, this Agency will be independent and a special confidence group will be able to monitor its work,” Volsky stated.
Parliamentary discussions over the proposed changes will continue. This week, amendments to the bill will be discussed during the third reading and after this the bill will be sent to the president for signature.
If President Giorgi Margvelashvili vetoes the bill, the majority will need votes of at least 76 MPs to override the veto.
The majority last overrode a presidential veto on the Bill of Judicial Reform on February 8.
Thea Morrison