The following are the results of monitoring of the Parliament website conducted by IDFI on March 14, 2016. The report assesses the Parliament’s compliance with the obligations set by the Parliament Chairman’s Decree on Approving the Rule of Proactive Disclosure of Public Information and Standards for Requesting Public Information.

Since December 2014, IDFI has been implementing a UNDP and EU funded project on supporting the engagement of the Georgian Parliament in the Open Government Partnership. Within the framework of this project the Inter-Factional and the Civil Society Working Groups have developed an Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan 2015-2016. The action plan consists of 18 total commitments, 3 of which are directly connected to the proactive disclosure of public information on the Parliament website.

IDFI has developed the following recommendations based on its monitoring of the Parliament website and the commitments under the Open Parliament Action Plan:

1) The Parliament Chairman’s Decree on Approving the Rule of Proactive Disclosure of Public Information and Standards for Requesting Public Information needs to be amended to include:

- Rules for citizen access to the Parliament building and relevant legal acts.
- MP questions, received answers and related statistics.
- Annual reports of Parliamentary delegations and friendship groups.

2) The Parliament must disclose public information on its website (assets listed on the budget sheet, grants issued by the Parliament, funds allocated from the budget and related legal acts, number of adopted legal acts, housing rules for MPs, composition of the Coordination Council).

3) If the Parliament did not transfer any assets, allocate any grants and/or receive budgetary funds, this must also be indicated on the website.

4) Public information posted on the website must include disclosure dates.

5) Public information must be organized thematically on the website.

6) Disclosed information about the vehicles on the Parliament budget sheet must include the model, date of manufacture, date of procurement, price and residual value.

7) Vehicle maintenance and fuel consumption expenses must be disclosed separately for each Parliament official and grossly for the remaining staff.

8) Communication expenses must be disclosed separately for Parliament officials and the remaining staff. The information should also include the limits on communications expenses that are set for public officials.

9) Salaries, supplements and bonuses must be disclosed separately for each Parliament official (with full names) and grossly for the remaining staff.

10) Work visit expenses (hotel, travel, daily expenses, etc.) must be disclosed separately for each Parliament official (by date, purpose and destination of travel) and grossly for the remaining staff.

11) Information on the approved and amended budget and its implementation must be organized by different categories of budget expenses and sources of revenue.

12) Information about the Parliament staff should be published annually rather than quarterly, within 10 work days after the end of each year.

13) Information about the real estate on the Parliament budget sheet should be published upon change rather than quarterly, within 10 work days of such a change.

14) Upon adding new information to the Parliament website, old data must not be deleted.

15) A separate section – Requesting Public Information Electronically – must be added to the Parliament website containing detailed information on relevant procedures.

16) An electronic form for requesting public information should be added to the website.