By the Decree of the Government of Georgia of 26 August 2013, a unified standard was established for the proactive publication of public data by government institutions. The Decree defined a list of public information subject to proactive disclosure, which public institutions are required to publish on their websites at specified intervals. The list includes important information about the institution on matters such as staffing policy, financing and expenditures, legal acts, and other issues.

IDFI’s long-term monitoring shows that the majority of public institutions fail to ensure the complete, consistent, and high-standard publication of information. Individual institutions often decide whether to publish particular data at their own discretion rather than in accordance with legally defined obligations. A clear example is the Administration of the Government of Georgia, which, since 2014, has effectively failed to comply with the obligations established by the Government’s own Decree. Information related to finances and public procurement on the Government’s website has not been updated since 2014. Moreover, for approximately three years (2020–2023), the publication of Government ordinances was also suspended; ordinances adopted during that period remain unavailable to this day.

Cases of incomplete compliance with these obligations are also common among ministries. For example, since 2023, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has ceased publishing information on fuel expenses, vehicle maintenance, telecommunications costs, and grants. The Ministry of Finance has not published information on the disposal and transfer for use of state property since 2014. The Ministry of Health has not updated information on strategies and activity reports since 2015. The website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contains only limited financial information for the first quarter of 2026, while the website of the Ministry of Culture still does not contain the mandatory financial information. The Ministries of Sport and Regional Development do not have their own websites at all.

Political developments also affect access to public information of high public interest. For example, court statistics have not been published on the website of the Supreme Court for three consecutive years. Previously, the Supreme Court published key statistical data on the common courts on a quarterly basis and annually issued a statistical compilation entitled Justice in Georgia.

The Supreme Court’s website also still does not contain data from the 2025 register of covert investigative measures, despite the fact that the obligation to publish such information is established by the Criminal Procedure Code.

Presumably, the publication of these data would make the human rights crisis in the country, as well as the role of the judiciary in it, even more visible.

The electronic portal “Budget Monitor,” administered by the State Audit Office, has likewise not been updated since 2024. The portal served as one of the country’s important sources of budgetary information. It presented detailed state budget data in an easily accessible format, including information unavailable in other budgetary documents. Such data included, for example, expenditures on bonuses and salary supplements by individual budgetary organizations, information on vehicle fleets, employment statistics, and other data.

The examples discussed in this article demonstrate that public institutions do not fulfill their proactive disclosure obligations with an adequate level of responsibility. Information is frequently published selectively, with its availability depending on the substance of the data concerned. This practice significantly undermines access to public information and transparency in the country.