Government Changes: a Quick Fix or Something that Leads to Real Reforms?
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has reshuffled part of the governmental team presenting Giorgi Mgebrishvili as the Minister of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Kakha Kakhishvili as the Minister of Corrections and Probation.
Replacing Giorgi Mgebrishvili, Kakhishvili is believed to be an efficient leader of the executive body. He previously worked as the First Deputy Minister of the same structure. At the same time, Kakhishvili is a member of the Experts’ Club and the State Constitutional Commission as well as the Criminal System Reforms Interagency Coordination Council.
Kakhishvili’s expert activism and popularity grew when the Georgian Dream coalition won the parliamentary elections of 2012. The GD-loyal expert was supported by the coalition, as he appeared to be one of the defenders of the GD politics in diverse aspects, including political issues.
As for head of the Interior Ministry, the post had been unoccupied since Vakhtang Gomelauri, the former head of the structure was appointed as head of the newly created Security Service, which was officially separated from MIA from August 1, 2015.
The new Minister, Giorgi Mgebrishvili, aged 45, is a graduate of Tbilisi State University’s law school. He started his career completing an internship at the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department in 1997. At different times, Mgebrishvili has worked at the MIA, Finance Ministry and Revenue Service, until becoming a Minister of Corrections in 2014.
While Prime Minister Garibashvili hopes that the newly appointed Mgebrishvili will be successful in his work, there is public opinion which suggests that neither Mgebrishvili nor Kakhishvili will be independent, but rather Ivanishvili-governed candidacies in the government. Moreover, it is believed by expert and civil society that Ivanishvili, who is alleged to be ruling unofficially from the backstage, orchestrates most of the members of the government.
Garibashvili says there were extremely important reforms carried out within the penitentiary system, whereas many evidence of mistreatment is still present. “We have implemented significant reforms at the Ministry of Corrections. The entire system was changed. Violations of human rights, torture and abusive treatment were completely eliminated at our penitentiary institutions; such things that were commonplace when Saakashvili was President,” the PM stated. He underlines that it is the first time in history that the country has spent millions on the treatment of inmates.
Garibashvili claims Mghebrishvili has totally transformed the infrastructure and classified prisoners according to risk factor, adding that the ex-Minister is also involved in an innovative project that will use electronic bracelets to allow prisoners to be monitored while they are temporarily released to visit relatives.
Analysis:
The two structures, MIA and the penitentiary system, have been one of the most sensitive for the country over the last 20 years. There were quite hard times, when Mikheil Saakashvili’s government officially started fighting rganized crime and corruption with the tool of Zero Tolerance, which put plenty of individuals in prison. However, combating the criminal seems to have included some elements of power abuse, which ultimately forced the reformer government to end their 9-year rule in 2012.
Notwithstanding some failures of the ex-government, the new one was expected to be much more efficient in this regard, successfully continuing the reforms started by their predecessors. Instead, there are no tangible, considerable aspects changed in the systems. Moreover, media and civil society continually reveal facts that the institution of ‘Thieves in Law’ is on the stage of empowering itself, through breaking the system from within, which clearly means that the two Ministries need to be much more proactive and reforms-oriented to keep the systems healthy.
Are these governmental changes again a short-term fix-up or something that leads to real reforms?
Steven Jones