On 8 July 2015 the Parliament of Georgia passed at the third hearing the draft Law “on the State Security Service” and amendments to its accompanying draft laws.

Transparency International Georgia has many concerns about the process by which the law was developed and its content. As noted previously, Transparency International Georgia believes there is an excessive concentration of powers in the Security Service and duplication of functions with the Ministry of Interior. The low levels of transparency in the new Security Service and weak external control mechanisms present serious accountability risks. In addition, the new law maintains many aspects of government surveillance and control that have no place in a modern democracy: the scope and level of control over state institutions and private structures, the formalisation of the use of security officers in institutions of public interest (“ODRs” “ОДР” – офицер действующего резерва; lit. Active Reserve Officers), and the secret surveillance/wiretapping of private citizens are among these prevailing problems.