PM Kobakhidze Announces Government Grant Fund for CSOs Registered in Foreign Agents Registry

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced during a briefing on September 9 the government’s initiative to open a grant fund for CSOs registered in the Foreign Agents Registry.

The Prime Minister noted that over-450 organizations that have applied to the Ministry of Justice for registration in the Registry serve as an example of “civic responsibility” and prove that “receiving foreign funding does not automatically mean harboring the negative interests of a foreign power”. He also emphasized that the registration process took place “against a backdrop of active pressure and blackmail” from both Georgian CSOs and donor organizations, which “threatened to stop funding them if they registered.”

“Against this background and in general, based on the interests of the country, we have decided to establish a grant program for Georgian NGOs, which will be fully financed from the state budget of Georgia with the money of Georgian taxpayers,” stated the Prime Minister, adding that “The necessary institutional and financial foundations for the smooth operation of the grant fund will be prepared in the next two months, and the first grant projects will be financed from January 2025.”

He emphasized that grant projects will be financed according to “Georgian people’s interests” with “specific objectives” such as “strengthening democratic institutions, fighting corruption, countering hybrid threats, caring for the people with special needs, protecting the environment, protecting the rights and interests of ethnic and religious minorities, etc.”.

The Prime Minister also noted that the organizations that want to do “good deeds” for Georgians will receive “twice as much” funding as they used to receive from abroad, and all of the funded and spent money will be “transparent” for the Georgian people to see and judge how well the organizations are “serving Georgian interests”.

“We call on all non-governmental organizations that want to become an agent of influence of the Georgian people and promote the national interests of Georgia to actively participate in the competitions announced within the grant program,” – added the Prime Minister.

During the Q&A portion of the briefing, the Prime Minister was asked how he imagined the government-funded NGO to function as a government watchdog. Kobakhidze assured that it was in the government’s interest to have CSOs that would “help” in the fight against corruption, for example. “This is my interest, personally, as the head of the government, I will fund NGOs that will help me identify and eliminate corruption in government structures.”

As to how a government-funded organization can be an civil society organization he stated that if an organization can be “funded by the foreign government” and be considered an NGO, why can’t it be considered an NGO if it is funded by the Georgian government? He also added an example of such an organization, saying that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is funded by the U.S. government and serves U.S. interests, saying that “this is a normal practice”.

“If you have nothing to hide and you are not involved in corruption, it is in your interest to involve as many people as possible in the process of eliminating corruption. The same is true for solving any other problem,” – added Prime Minister Kobakhidze. As for the budget of this initiative, the Prime Minister noted that it needs to be worked out, but will be in millions, since “there are more than enough resources” in the budget, because “it has grown by 10 billion in the last four years”.

“As for freedom [of activities of the CSOs], freedom will certainly be the starting point and the defining point. Without it, we can’t start fighting corruption or other tasks related to strengthening institutions, etc. Of course, without freedom, none of these tasks can be done effectively,” concluded PM Kobakhidze.

Also Read:

• 03/09/2024 – 476 CSOs Register by Foreign Agents Law Deadline
• 02/09/2024 – Public Defender Outlines Risks in Implementing Regulations of the Foreign Agents Law

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