Tbilisi: In the first reading, the Parliament unanimously adopted the draft amendment to the “Regulations of the Parliament of Georgia” with 98 votes.One of the 12 recommendations developed by the European Union to grant Georgia candidate status was to strengthen and improve parliamentary control mechanisms. In this regard, at the initiative of the Committee on Procedural Issues, a working group was created in which representatives of the governing team, as well as representatives of the parliamentary opposition and non-governmental organizations participated.Â
A study of normative acts was conducted, and the obtained results were to some extent the basis for the implementation of the changes that served to increase the mechanisms of parliamentary control “, said the Chairman of the Procedural Issues Committee, Irakli Kadagishvili, while presenting the issue.
According to his information, the working group received a number of recommendations regarding parliamentary control, which was preceded by the research on the implementation of normative acts by the committee.
As per the speaker, the main issues that include separate mechanisms of parliamentary control and which were affected by the changes are the question of a member of the Parliament, interpellation, the annual report of the Prime Minister of Georgia, the report of the Prime Minister of Georgia, the announcement of an official at the plenary session, the minister’s hour, the member of the Government of Georgia and Listening to other officials, thematic research, mandatory attendance of officials at the committee meeting, obligation to submit information to the committee, control of the implementation of normative acts, performance of the tasks defined for the institutions of the executive authority by the transitional provisions of the normative acts of the Parliament of Georgia within the established time limits.
According to Irakli Kadagishvili, the working group discussed the mentioned issues and the developed recommendations were reflected in the presented draft of the regulations.
According to the draft law, the deadline for sending the request of the committee to the relevant official by the Chairman of the committee on the invitation to the meeting of the committee is determined, no later than 3 days.
According to the speaker, additional mechanisms were introduced in order to establish proactive control.
According to the amendment, it is specified that the decision of the committee is the basis for requesting documents, conclusions and other necessary materials from the relevant official.
In accordance with the presented amendments, the deadline for answering the question of the member of the Parliament is reduced, which instead of 15 days, is set to 10 days. In addition, the amendment will concern the extension of the mentioned term.
According to the speaker, in addition, in order to enforce the question of the member of the Parliament and to determine compliance with the requirements of the legislation, the draft regulation of the Parliament introduces a systematic monitoring mechanism.
According to the draft law, in order to increase the information and involvement of the members of the Parliament, the member of the government is obliged to submit the report in written form to the Parliament of Georgia 5 days before the speech at the plenary session of the Parliament within the minister’s hour.
In accordance with the draft regulation, the quorum for making a decision on the initiation of a thematic investigation by the committee is reduced, and instead of the majority of the members of the committee, the decision will be made by the majority of those present at the committee meeting.
In addition to the above, the change will concern the issue of extension of the period determined by the thematic research group for the preparation of the conclusion.
According to the draft law, unlike the current rule, the conclusion developed by the thematic research group can be presented at the plenary session of the Parliament, regardless of whether the decision on the thematic research issue was made by a separate committee or by the Standing Council of the Parliament. In case the issue of thematic research is brought up for discussion at the plenary session of the Parliament, the procedure for its consideration is defined here.
As Irakli Kadagishvili explained, the change is included in the rule of interpellation. The legislative initiative also defines the procedure for submitting a public report of the activities of the State Security Service of Georgia to the Parliament of Georgia.
As a result of voting, the Parliament supported the presented legislative initiative.
