ISFED Says Public Registry Purges “Unjustified” and “Discriminatory”

The dismissals of 43 civil servants from the National Agency of Public Registry “did not meet real needs” and were “unjustified” and “discriminatory,” according to the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), a local election observer and rights watchdog that is defending the interests of the dismissed civil servants in court.

The organization explains its belief that the purges were political by pointing out that the Public Registry is “constantly understaffed,” with vacancies announcements on the Civil Service Bureau’s website, and that some of the dismissed civil servants had worked for years on permanent contracts. In its March 12 statement, ISFED also says that the Public Registry has not provided the requested information on the dismissed employees.

According to ISFED, Public Registry employees were told in early November – before the protests began – that the land registration project would be extended from the end of 2024 to the end of 2025, which would logically require a workforce. In the same month, they were also assured that “the existing human resources will be maintained in 2025”. In addition, between September and October, the Public Registry announced 45 new vacancies. These factors, ISFED argues, cast doubt on the justification for the layoffs.

The dismissed workers believe that the current proceedings are directly related to a petition created on 30 November 2024 and signed by more than 350 workers of the Agency. The employees had publicly expressed their position on the Georgian Dream decision to withdraw from the EU accession process and condemned the violence.

ISFED said it had filed a lawsuit in the city courts to protect the rights of 43 people dismissed from the National Agency of Public Registry.

The dismissal of civil servants, often citing the “reorganization” began in late December with the adoption of amendments to the Law on Public Service – widely believed to be aimed at simplifying political dismissals – after a month of wider protests in which hundreds of civil servants distanced themselves from Georgian Dream’s (GD) decision to halt EU accession and condemned the government’s repression. The watchdogs assessed the amendments as worsening the existing legal regulation and violating the labour rights of civil servants, as well as essentially contradicting the spirit of the Constitution of Georgia and the Law of Georgia On Civil Service.

Also Read:

• 11/03/2025 – Two TSU Lecturers Dismissed for Alleged Political Reasons
• 06/03/2025 – TV Imedi Report Normalizes Firing of Civil Servant for Protest
• 28/02/2025 – Dismissals in Ministry of Defense Raise Concerns of Political Purge
• 13/01/2025 – Politically Driven Purge Guts Civil Service
• 12/12/2024 – GYLA Criticize New Legislative Amendments, Warns of Democratic Backslide
• 02/12/2024 – Kobakhidze Alludes to Purges, Says Civil Service is “Self-Cleansing”
  
  

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