Foreign Grants to Require Prior Executive Permission
Foreign donors would need prior approval from the executive to disburse grants. The Georgian Dream has introduced the relevant amendments to the Law on Grants and intends to fast-track them. They are expected to be adopted in a week, and enacted immediately after the GD-elected president Mikheil Kavelashvili signs them.
The donors must seek clearance from the Anti-Corruption Agency, which will have 10 days to respond. An appeal would not suspend the decision. “It is prohibited to receive a grant without such consent,” the bill states. If the permission is denied, the “receiving a prohibited grant will result in a fine equal to twice the grant amount,” the draft reads. International sports associations, federations, committees, and international organizations operating in Georgia, as well as individual scholarships for study and research, are exempt.
“In about ten days, the government will decide to whom the UN, the Council of Europe, and the others will give grants, and to whom they will not. In doing so, authorities will block funding to undesirable organizations that work on human rights, corruption, and other necessary issues,” lawyer and legal expert Saba Brachveli wrote on social media, adding, “In a week, Georgian Dream will ban any free assistance to people without its consent.”
Representatives of Georgian civil society vowed to oppose the amendments, which they described as “an act of persecution against the Georgian people” aimed at “leaving citizens defenseless before the ruling party’s punitive system by banning international support and solidarity”. They said the amendments extend the GD’s broader efforts “to dismantle support for Georgian civil society and the Georgian people.
The GD parliament has already passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which the ruling party claims is an “exact copy” of the U.S. law in Georgian legislation, which, critics say, is aimed at targeting civil society and the media. It will take two months to take effect.
The Anti-Corruption Agency has already been instrumentalized for partisan purposes. Last September, it controversially qualified large CSOs as political parties, in an apparent bid to suppress election observation. That decision was overturned by the PM after an outcry in an arbitrary “goodwill gesture.”
NOTE: This news article was updated on April 8 at 16:00 to include the statement of representatives of Georgian civil society organizations.
Also Read:
- 07/04/2025 – Georgian Dream Speaker Slams UK Election Grant as Political Interference
- 24/09/2024 – Anti-Corruption Bureau Qualifies CSOs as “Political Actors with Declared Election Objectives”, Demands Financial Statements
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