On International Anti-Corruption Day, December 9, Transparency International (TI) Georgia, the local leading corruption watchdog, said Georgia has become a “captured, kleptocratic state,” warning that corruption is likely to deepen under the current system of the ruling Georgian Dream government.
“In such countries, the sole goal and motivation of the ruling elite is personal enrichment, which is achieved by robbing citizens and the state,” the watchdog said, adding that resources accumulated through corruption are then used “to maintain power.”
TI-Georgia accused Georgian Dream founder and billionaire Honorary Chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili of heading a captured state by empowering a “specific group” to enrich itself through corruption and using it to subjugate state institutions. As a result, the organization said, increased corruption and greater damage to the country should be expected.
According to the watchdog, the process of “state capture is complete,” with “no independent state body” left able to openly address corruption. It said kleptocracy “is on the rise,” citing the scale and nature of documented cases of elite corruption, and described the GD government’s anti-corruption efforts as a “sham,” saying only former ruling party members are targeted, while “hundreds of documented cases of elite corruption are ignored.”
TI-Georgia said the government’s decision to abolish the Anti-Corruption Bureau comes after the agency was repurposed into a “repressive mechanism” against non-governmental organizations rather than a body to fight corruption.
The organization said Georgia is ignoring international anti-corruption commitments, has lacked a National Anti-Corruption Strategy “for more than five years,” and has legally restricted cooperation between state institutions and civil society by excluding organizations from decision-making processes.
“For Georgia to be able to effectively fight corruption, the democratic system must be restored in the country, and a real process of building independent institutions must begin,” the watchdog said.
The ruling Georgian Dream party maintains it is waging an “uncompromised” fight against corruption, prosecuting several former high-ranking officials. Civil society organizations, including TI-Georgia, however, counter that elite corruption “remains widespread” despite those actions.
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