On February 25 and 28, 2022 Building Integrity and Transparency strategies and action plans  were adopted, respectively, by the decrees of the mayors of Akhmeta and Tsageri municipalities. The strategic documents were prepared and adopted in cooperation with IDFI within the USAID/GGI funded project “Develop Integrity and Transparency Strategy and Action Plan for the City-Halls of Akhmeta and Tsageri Municipalities”. The strategic documents aim to strengthen the resilience of Akhmeta and Tsageri City Halls against the threat of corruption.

The action plans of the City Halls are designed for 2022 - 2023 and envisage eight main directions:

- Transparency;

- Citizen Engagement and Accountability;

- Human Resource Management;

- Ethics and Corruption Risk Reduction;

- Budget and Public Procurement;

- Permits;

- Internal Financial Control;

- Legal Entities Subordinated to the City Hall.

At the first stage, in order to develop evidence-based strategic documents the City Halls together with IDFI assessed corruption risks in terms of accountability and integrity.  Corruption risk assessment analysis was prepared with the involvement of the City Hall staff and civil society representatives. During the preparation process of the analysis, the existing Anti-Corruption legislative framework and policy-making documents; international recommendations regarding Georgia - OECD-ACN / GRECO monitoring reports and their general standards were studied. The focus was on recommendations that were relevant to local government. At the same time, the state audit and internal audit reports were examined.

At the next stage, based on the analysis of corruption risks identified during corruption risk assessment, the corruption risk register was developed. Corruption risks were arranged according to severity, taking into account their likelihood and impact. To eliminate the identified gaps and challenges the priority directions, goals and objectives of the strategy were determined. On the basis of the Building Integrity and Transparency strategy a two-year action plan for the implementation of the strategy was developed in each municipality. It is noteworthy that public involvement was ensured in the process of drafting the strategic documents. 

In the case of both municipalities a working group has been created which consists of the heads of the primary structural units of the City Hall. The working group reviews the Building Integrity and Transparency Strategy once in two years and reviews Action Plan annually, updates the documents in response to ongoing challenges.

At the final stage, to promote the implementation of the activities envisaged in the action plan, IDFI conducted online trainings on transparency, accountability and integrity for the employees of the City Halls of Tsageri and Akhmeta municipalities, respectively, on February 23-24 and 28, 2022. 

The training participants were introduced to the concepts envisaged in the local Building Integrity and Transparency Strategy and Action Plan, as well as the practical directions required for the implementation of the strategic documents. 

The trainings were led by Mariam Maisuradze, Head of the Anti-Corruption Direction, and Tamar Chkhitunidze, Research Coordinator. Practical examples were discussed during the trainings and participants were provided with information on various relevant issues:

- Anti-Corruption framework of Georgia;

- Policy development; 

- Monitoring of the strategic documents;

- Access to public information and open data; 

- Human resource management and functional analysis;

- Ethics and disciplinary proceedings;

- Financial/Assets declarations and whistleblower institute;

- Corruption risk assessment system; 

- Internal control systems; 

- Public procurements.