‘Strict’ Regulations on Party Funding Mulled

Lawmakers from the ruling party said after meeting with President Saakashvili on June 25, that the Parliament will start considerations from next week on how to make political parties’ funding more transparent to prevent inflow of “illegal money” from abroad.

MP Giorgi Gabashvili said after the meeting in the president’s residence in Avlabari district of Tbilisi, that one of the issues discussed was how to make regulations “strict in order to prevent parties from having a temptation of receiving illegal money from abroad.”

MP Pavle Kublashvili, chairman of the parliamentary committee for legal affairs, said that on the one hand the authorities should foster creation of “even more liberal environment” in the country for the political parties.

“But on the other hand we should create new mechanisms in order to control each ruble and each kopek received by political parties from abroad,” MP Kublashvili said and by mentioning Russian currency units he made an obvious reference to the authorities’ allegations that some opposition parties are financed from Russia.

He also added that the funding information should be fully transparent.

“Information about transfer of, I repeat, each ruble and each kopek should be available for the public, otherwise sanctions will be imposed on political parties for use of funds received from foreign countries,” MP Kublashvili said and added that the details of new regulations would become clear later.

“On the one hand there should be conditions for the parties to have funding, but on the other hand there should be accountability from the side of political parties to make transparent how they spend funds and there also should be strict mechanisms that would prevent everyone from stirring disorders within the country from abroad,” Gigi Tsereteli, the vice speaker of the Parliament, said after the meeting with the President.

Georgia already has a law laying out rules of political parties’ funding.

It bans political parties from receiving funding from foreign citizens and foreign legal entities.

The law also stipulates a political party to publish once in a year (deadline is February 1 of each year) a financial declaration with its audit and with information about sources of funding.

According to the same law funding from anonymous sources should not exceed GEL 30,000 annually.

A political party can receive maximum of GEL 100,000 from a single legal entity per year and maximum of GEL 30,000 from a single individual per year.

The law also envisages state funding for political parties and sets out rules about which party can become eligible for the state funding.
 
Opposition parties, eligible for the state funding, complained that they had not received funding for recent two months.

The authorities’ move to make party funding under “strict control” comes after a meeting of Levan Gachechiladze, an individual opposition politician, and Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of New Rights Party, with former interior minister, Kakha Targamadze, in Berlin.

Levan Gachechiladze said on June 25 that the parliament was better to monitor the government’s and the president’s spending. And Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia’s Way opposition party, said the authorities initiative was an attempt “to stifle” political parties.

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