Political Corruption Monitoring System in Georgia

Georgia treated combating corruption, a harmful socio-political phenomenon, as one of the top priorities of public policy and, sharing international experience, has defined the regulation of the legality of political finance as an important element of the anti-corruption strategy. In 2011, material changes were introduced in the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Associations of Citizens. The reform offered a completely new political corruption monitoring system in the country. They established the Financial Monitoring Service of Political Parties within the State Audit Office of Georgia with the main task to control the legality and transparency of political finance. To that end, the Monitoring Service was assigned to monitor and ensure the transparency of the revenues and expenses of the political parties and also was given the power to apply administrative proceedings and sanctions. Since 2022, this mandate, along with other anti-corruption duties, has been granted to a legal entity under public law - the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is independent in its operations and reports only to the Parliament of Georgia and the Interagency Anti-Corruption Council. We will try in this study, giving due consideration to the best international practices, to analyze the specifics of the agencies controlling political corruption and assess the outcomes of their operations in the scope of the mandate. We will discuss the problems that remain a challenge based on the legislation applicable today and are a bar to the process of developing a more effective and result-oriented anti-corruption system.