Goal: Increase the accountability, transparency and profile of the Georgian Parliament and support a more inclusive law-making process that engages citizens and changes their attitudes toward the legislative branch. 

TI Georgia will:

●   Open a new office in Kutaisi that would allow us to continue publicizing the activities of Parliament, providing input to the lawmaking process and to lobby policy makers. TI Georgia will continue and extend its work to notify interested stakeholders of procedural updates via SMS, a service which is expected to become even more valuable to the media, civil society organizations and interested stakeholders once Parliament is no longer in Tbilisi. 

●   Conduct focus groups on the most important bills discussed by the legislature. Experts, stakeholders and citizens who will be affected by a new law will discuss a proposed initiative. At the same time, when relevant, during the discussions within focus groups a major emphasis will be put on gender equality issues, as men and women may have different needs and may be affected by laws and policies in different ways. The results of these discussions will be submitted to MPs working on the topic and will be shared with and presented to the relevant parliamentary committee at committee hearings. TI Georgia has conducted such focus groups several years ago, producing at times very interesting results and highly valuable input that could help to improve the quality of laws and regulation. Focus groups on at least five topics will be held per year.

●   TI Georgia’s staff will host and record a weekly podcast (when Parliament is in session), in which new legal initiatives, proposed policies and developments in Parliament will be discussed with guests (experts, stakeholders, MPs, and civil society representatives). The show will seek to better inform interested citizens and civil society groups about developments in the legislature. TI Georgia will engage local radio stations and encourage them to re-broadcast the podcast.

●   Continue collecting procedural data on bills, including who submitted them and when, how much time was devoted to discussion before adoption and how many (if any) amendments were passed in subsequent months. TI Georgia will use this information to provide continuing evaluation of the lawmaking process in Georgia.

●   Perform an update on the online “report cards” after the elections and perform regular updates for these profiles, providing important information regarding an MP’s activities for the past year, including attendance rate, voting records, and asset declarations. Much of this data will be automatically imported from official databases, which will also contribute to the sustainability of this effort. The report cards will be expanded to include assessments of MPs’ campaign promises and their actual performance in office. 

●   Advocate for stricter enforcement of Parliamentary rules against misconduct such as ghost voting, conflicts of interest and proper disclosure of assets and incomes. 

In order to ensure that current Georgian legislation and future legislative initiatives will be compatible with the EU’s policies and practices and Georgian society is aware of ongoing developments in the process of legislative harmonization, TI Georgia will launch a new parliamentary program and conduct the following activities: 

●   Open a new office working on European integration issues by assessing, simultaneously with the Parliament, relevant legislative initiatives in terms of their compatibility with the EU policies and existing agreements with Georgia;

●   Write blogs, statements, reports and assessment papers about Georgia’s integration to Europe and legislative harmonization;

●   Meet with the relevant stakeholders in order to raise their awareness about ongoing European integration issues;

●   Advocate for certain legislative changes needed for better performance regarding the fulfillment of country’s commitments towards the European Union.