Georgia in TI’s Government Defense Integrity Index 2020

On December 9, Transparency International – Defence and Security (TI-DS) published the Government Defence Integrity Index report for Central and Eastern European countries, including Georgia, examining the quality and effectiveness of defense governance across fifteen countries of the region.

In the ranking, where 100 points indicate the lowest risk of corruption, while 0 shows the highest, Georgia marked an above-average overall score in the CEE region with 60 points (regional average – 48), placing it in the “moderate risk” category of corruption in the field of defense.

“The Georgian defense sector is generally subject to scrutiny and held to reasonably high standards of transparency, with clear access to information legislation,” the document noted, adding that “however, corruption risks remain and the effectiveness of parliamentary scrutiny remains patchy, with most legislation passed either without amendment or with only technical changes.”

According to the report, the defense committee and other oversight bodies in Georgia have ‘greater impact’ than in many other examined countries on “the formulation of defense policy,” while being more effective “at holding the executive to account.” However, it underlined that consistent implementation of recommendations by the Defense Ministry “remains a challenge” in the country.

As for the key challenges, the report underlined Georgia’s five shortcomings, including weak anti-corruption mechanisms, unsatisfying parliamentary oversight, opaque procurement procedures, the issue of whistleblower protection and insufficient budget transparency.

The document highlighted “the use of opaque procurement procedures” as a corruption risk, as per the latest 2015-2017 data, the Defense Ministry spent only 25% of its procurement budget through open and competitive procurement procedures.

TI also identified “inadequate protection of whistleblowers” as another major limitation of Georgian defense system, noting that whistleblowers in the defense sector are not covered by protection guarantees provided by the Georgian laws.

In comparison, Georgia’s South Caucasian neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan were put in the high risk and critical risk categories, respectively.

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