Financial Police Authority to Be Reduced

The Financial Police, an influential government body that monitors and investigates economic crime, will be cut of its current power once the government completes its tax administration reforms.

President Saakashvili said on August 4 that the reforms will involve the unification of the customs service and tax department. The Financial Police will become one of the units of this unified structure and ?it should be used in extremely rare cases.? He said that this is part of a new approach which envisages, as he put it, the ?decriminalization of financial relations? between the state and entrepreneurs.

Saakashvili said that this reform ?will need many months? to be completed, and did not specify an exact time frame.

The Financial Police was set up in February 2004 to fight economic and financial crimes and to probe tax evasion cases. The unit, which is currently part of the Finance Ministry and is under the direct subordination of the President, has turned into an extremely influential institution, and has often been the target of fierce criticism for its high-handed tactics.

?It will not be just a mechanical unification? This will include the creation of a unified digital data base and no professional will be sacked? A businessman should know that he has relations with a civilized state, and business should have the feeling that the state is not only a tool for punishment. Punishment should be the last resort used by the state,? Saakashvili said.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)