CSOs Call on Gov’t to Cooperate with Anti-Corruption Network

Four civil society organizations released a statement on 22 November addressing the fact that Georgia is the only country that did not participate in the process of adopting the Fifth Round Monitoring Assessment Framework by the Steering Group of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Anti-Corruption Network (OECD/ACN).

According to the statement, if the Georgian government does not agree to adopt the framework already accepted by all the network countries by the end of 2022, the fifth round of monitoring under the Istanbul Anti-Corruption action plan will no longer be carried out in Georgia in 2023.

Per the civil society organizations, the OECD of 38 economically and democratically developed countries, and assists more than 100 countries in the world, including Georgia, in implementing economic and democratic reforms.

At the same time, they emphasized that cooperation with the OECD is “extremely important for Georgia, as the largest part of the aid allocated to the country comes from OECD member states.”

In addition, they pointed out that the OECD’s evaluation process of the corruption environment is supported by the European Union and can become one of the criteria for evaluating countries that have expressed a desire for EU integration, and “especially for those that want to obtain the status of a candidate for the European Union…”

In that context, the organizations underscored that the Georgian government’s “passivity” regarding the fifth round of the OECD/ACN monitoring process “harms the reputation of Georgia and calls into question the agenda of anti-corruption reforms in the country.”

“We call on the Government of Georgia to constructively cooperate with the Anti-Corruption Network of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and to ensure the implementation of the 5th round of anti-corruption environment monitoring assessment in Georgia in 2023,” they stressed.

The statement was signed by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), Transparency International – Georgia (TI Georgia), the Governance Monitoring Center (GMC), and the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA).

Also Read:

• 26/10/2022 – Georgian Dream to Initiate Legal Changes on Creating Anti-Corruption Bureau
• 01/11/2022 – TI – Georgia: Anti-Corruption Bureau Proposal Fails to Meet EU Recommendation

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