Institute for Development of Freedom of Information has made an administrative complaint against Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.

The Ministry answered only two requests out of fifteen completely. The rest of the requests were either ignored or answer did not comply with the requests. 

IDFI considers that the arguments brought in the response of the Ministry cannot prove the reasonability of not providing the information. Accordingly, IDFI demands that Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia should give the public information completely, so as not to hinder the monitoring and estimation process.

The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia has provided incomplete information about salaries, bonuses and allowances of the officials and about expenditures of “roaming” and technical services of vehicles. They also provided non-classified data about money spent on events.

The ministry gave no information about the activities of controlling bodies for elimination of violations (including audit reports and number of imposition of disciplinary cases). The ministry also did not provide written agreements concerning the urgent need of the purchases, copies of diplomas of minister and his deputies and business related correspondence.

It should be noted that lately we have observed the tendency that some public institutions avoid providing information about management of public finances, especially information about bonuses and allowances. In February 2014 IDFI already made an administrative complaint against Ministry of Energy of Georgia for sending incomplete information. Minister’s decision will be announced on March 11.

IDFI hopes that public institutions, especially the public officials do realize the significance of transparency of public information held in state agencies for the state-building and civil society development process and will contribute in achieving these goals as much as possible.