To the Minister of Corrections of Georgia

Sozar Subari

Please, be informed that on February 11, 2014 IDFI addressed to the Penitentiary Department with the request of 17 types of public information, including the data about the bonuses, surpluses and business trip costs of Penitentiary Department in 2013. Unfortunately, the FOIA officer of the institution failed to fulfill his/her commitments and ignored our request. It must be noted that in 2012 department provided complete information to the same requests.

The fact that the department failed to fulfill the commitment of creating the special page for “Public Information” by December 2013 and publicizing the public data (obligation comes from the 26.08.2013 decree #219 of the Government of Georgia) proves the lack of transparency and accountability in the Penitentiary Department.

FOIA officers of the Penitentiary Department avoided the release of information and failed to fulfill the commitments; simultaneously, media is spreading news about high bonuses of the employees of the department; such chain of events causes doubt that the process of managing the state finances in above mentioned institution may be out of legal boundaries.

Due to the high public interest, IDFI appeals to the Ministry of Corrections, to ensure the fulfillment of the commitments of the sub-agency – Probation Department within its competence. In particular:

• To ensure the availability of public information for the citizens in accordance to the articles 37, 38 and 40 of the General Administrative Code.
• To create the special page on the web-page of the department and provide the public information defined by the 26.08.2013 decree #219 of the Government of Georgia.
• To introduce the e-request of public information standards on the web-page of the department.

We believe that one of the major factors that determined the large amount of bonuses in December of 2013 was the expectation of the high officials of the department, that this information would not go viral. IDFI hopes that the Ministry carries out relevant activities in order to guarantee the transparency of the Penitentiary Department.