The action plan for deoligarchization has been released. As noted in the document, an action plan to prevent the excessive influence of interests in economic, political and public life was developed, which corresponds to the goals listed in the Georgia-EU Association Agreement and the Association Agenda for 2021-2027 and defines the scope of measures necessary for a systematic approach.
The document envisages taking steps in 7 directions, namely:
Fight against corruption (strengthening the fight against all forms of corruption and prevention of corruption, implementation of GRECO’s recommendations).
Public procurement (“Maintaining transparency and accountability in public procurement”).
Competition policy (“formulation and implementation of effective competition policy”).
Justice.
Fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (“Further strengthening of anti-money laundering policies, including transparency of information on legal entities and beneficiary owners, as well as timely and effective access to information on beneficiary owners, in accordance with MONEYVAL and FATF recommendations”).
Monitoring of financial activities of political parties.
Media (“Strengthening media pluralism and media ownership transparency”).
The document notes that this action plan recognizes the interrelated nature of potential problems, which provides an opportunity to establish a relationship between different areas of law and agencies implementing the activities of these areas.
“For greater efficiency, it also allows stakeholders to focus their resources on particularly vulnerable areas. Actions aimed at preventing the excessive influence of interests are actions that contribute to the identification, fight and prevention of phenomena related to oligarchy. The measures of the first category focus on strengthening the institutional structure and capacity of the relevant bodies so that they can carry out their activities in an independent, reliable, coordinated and professional manner. The measures of the second category focus on activities that prevent and/or limit individuals or groups of individuals from using excessive power for their own benefit/misuse or preventing the concentration of such power in the social, economic and political life of Georgia.
“This will contribute to greater health and strength, greater reliability of processes in competition, procurement, media, elections and other areas, where European standards will be considered; It will also help to better reflect the choices and interests of Georgian citizens. Another category of measures focuses on ensuring greater transparency and accountability in social, economic and political processes, so that the system is more inclusive and adaptive while remaining under democratic control. In other words, each activity in the following seven areas contributes to one or more tasks of strengthening the implementing agency; it will contribute to the improvement of existing legislation; to better regulating the field in accordance with the legislation of the European Union, or to strengthening the system in another way, in order to avoid the excessive influence of interests in the social, economic or political life of Georgia,” the document states.
