Members of the Parliament: Tamar Chugoshvili, Irine Pruidze and Dimitri Tskitishvili held an information briefing on the legislative package registered with the Bureau on August 31, aiming to carry out significant anti-corruption reforms in the country.

"Our legislative package addresses the topic that has recently been increasingly discussed, both within the country and internationally. This refers to a problem of corruption and the weakness of anti-corruption institutions in Georgia. As you know, in the resolution adopted by the European Parliament, Georgia has a direct obligation to establish an independent mechanism to ensure the fight against corruption in the country. Also, more recently, resolutions passed by Congress have highlighted the problem of corruption in the country. However, the most important thing is what our citizens encounter and witness in everyday life”, - Tamar Chugoshvili stated.

According to her, the legislative package consists of 30 drafts and envisages the fight against corruption in three main areas: 1. Impartial and effective investigation of corruption crimes; 2. Effective control of the legality of the financing of political associations; 3. Effective control of the property status of officials.

Tamar Chugoshvili noted that according to the initiative, anti-corruption institutions should be completely independent, with high legitimacy, high public confidence and all three topics - political funding, corruption investigation and income and declaration of officials should be controlled by an independent agency – National Anti-corruption Agency.

"This is a very important initiative that we need to approve if we want to avoid corruption in the country, not to aggravate the situation and not to get involved in negative processes in the direction of corruption. In my opinion, the discussion and adoption of this legislative initiative is being monitored in great detail by our international partners, and it is very important for them what the Parliament decides and will do on this issue. We, as Independent MPs, have initiated this legislative package, however, the majority is to decide whether to pass the law, and we hope that the Parliamentary majority will seriously consider this initiative and play an important role in establishing an independent institution and implementation of the reform”, - Tamar Chugoshvili stated.

According to T. Chigoshvili, in the process of working on the draft law, the initiators of the legislative package cooperated with Transparency International Georgia and other organizations or individuals who are most competent in this area.

According to MP Dimitri Tskitishvili, this is not just an initiative, but an institutional reform, which is important to be carried out.

"This bill envisages a structural, organizational form that will be free from political elections, political cycles, and, consequently, the change of government will not lead to a weakening of this institution”, - Dimitri Tskitishvili remarked.

According to MP Irine Pruidze, the important fact in the presented initiative is that the existing powers in the fight against corruption, which are scattered in different agencies, will be brought together, which will serve as a better coordination in terms of planning and implementation of the fight against corruption.

"We hope that the majority will support this bill and in the near future we will have a new, independent agency that will strengthen the prevention and fight against corruption in Georgia”, - Irine Pruidze commented.

The legislative package has been initiated by MPs: Tamar Chugoshvili, Tamar Khulordava, Irine Pruidze, Nino Goguadze and Dimitri Tskitishvili.