Tbilisi: The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) released its fifth report today. The report calls for Stronger measures to improve Georgian officials’ accountability.
GRECO is a Council of Europe body that aims to enhance the capacity of its members to fight corruption by identifying deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies. According to the latest reports, the anti-corruption Bureau of Georgia lacks Independence, which is a serious problem. However the report also recognised the action of the Georgian government against corruption.
At the same time, according to the report, the top Officials’ Corruption is still going unchecked as well. Moreover, as per the report, Georgia has “no specific strategy” to prevent the act of corruption being done by the top officials of the government.
GRECO, while making the other suggestion, recommended greater transparency in the appointment of government advisors and the introduction of the strictest measures against the culprits. The report stated that the authorities should ensure the independence and effectiveness of crimes that are going on against the legislators. Meanwhile the law Enforcement Requires Regular Integrity inspection to have a check on the wrong practices as well.
The report said that as far as the issue of law enforcement is concerned, departments such as the Patrol Police, the Central Criminal Police, and the Border Police need to take urgent steps to check corruption . It is worth noting that Georgia has established risk management mechanisms for the police, but there have been many incidents in which the law enforcers sometimes failed to recognize the real problems.
GRECO strongly advised the background checking of police who are working in the field as they have direct interaction with people. Moreover, regular checkups of the careers of the police and members other law enforcement agencies are also a strong need of the hour.
The report called upon the Georgian authorities to introduce a whilstelblower bill, which will ensure the protection of the people who raised their voices against corruption.
