TI Georgia: Parliamentary Oversight Weak
Transparency International-Georgia (TI-Georgia) on December 22 released a report on the parliamentary oversight, covering the period from December 12, 2020, to June 17, 2022.
According to the report, the parliamentary oversight was irreparably damaged by the ongoing political turmoil, particularly the boycott of the parliament after the 2020 parliamentary elections by a large part of the opposition parties. “As a result, the Parliament actually continued its work without opposition,” the report reads.
- 24/12/2022 – Parliament Confirms New Old Gakharia Cabinet
This “had a severe impact on Parliament’s oversight functions, the use of control mechanisms was reduced, and when used – often executed in an extremely proforma manner.”
Also, “the attitude of accountable officials towards legislative oversight was still a problem, especially if the control was initiated by the opposition.”
Reviewing the reports of the accountable bodies and monitoring the implementation of the recommendations issued by the Parliament is still a problem. “Parliamentary control in the most important areas of the country is still ineffective, for example, the oversight of the security sector, due to inappropriate legal guarantees along with a number of other issues.”
Statistics
According to TI Georgia, during the reporting period, 22 Thematic Inquiry Groups were established in Parliament. Four requests for the formation of temporary investigative commissions were registered, but only one was established – The Interim Fact-Finding Commission on the Parliamentary Elections of October 31, 2020, initiated by the ruling Georgian Dream faction.
Parliament Members sent 2,922 questions to the accountable bodies, of which 371 were left unanswered. 91 unanswered questions were initiated by the members of the Georgian Dream faction, whereas 280 questions were asked by the opposition.
During the reporting period, most of the deputy questions (445) were sent by Mikheil Sarjveladze (majority), Levan Ioseliani (opposition) sent 313 questions, whereas Aleksandre Elisashvili (opposition) sent 284 questions. Most questions were addressed to the Minister of Justice.
Notably, Instead of 6 interpellations, one interpellation and 19 ministerial hours were held.
Regarding the committee hearings, accountable officials were summoned 19 times; in 12 cases that were initiated by the opposition, the accountable persons did not appear before the committee.
Major Challenges
According to the report, the Parliament did not exercise the following parliamentary control mechanisms during the reporting period: request the hearing of the Prime minister’s extraordinary report, summon an accountable official to the plenary sitting at the invitation of ⅓ of the MPs, summon the government representative or other accountable person to the committee session by the majority faction.
During the reporting period, 25 reports were submitted to Parliament, 9 of which were not discussed. Multiple postponements of report discussions occur systematically, activity reports for 2020 are often reviewed one or more years late, TI Georgia says.
“It is challenging that there is no effective mechanism for monitoring the recommendations issued by the Parliament. The Parliament does not use utilize its powers to control the implementation of the recommendations issued by the trust group, thematic study groups, and the committees,” the report reads.
Recommendations
Recommendations by TI Georgia
- The use of Parliamentary control mechanisms should be enhanced, and the members of parliament should demonstrate a high degree of independence while exercising parliamentary control. Parliamentary oversight should address the most challenging issues of the country and should not be imposed based on parochial party agendas.
- Members of both the parliamentary majority and the opposition should utilize all the mechanisms of parliamentary control, including the establishment of investigative commissions, and hearing of the reports from accountable bodies according to the schedule.
- In order to fully engage the opposition in parliamentary control and strengthen its role, solid legal guarantees should be established.
Follow the link to read the full report and recommendations.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
