Agreement44.
VVThis is not to say that the reforms only took place due to this ‘carrot’ of European integration, since widespread corruption did exhibit itself as a considerable ‘stick’; however, the European project arguably provided the immediate motivation to tackle the issue45. The anti-corruption reforms in general facilitated the political integration of Georgia within the European framework, but the higher education reforms in particular allowed Georgian society more freedom to interact with wider European society, given the recognition of Georgian institutions through the Bologna Process46,47.
VI. CHALLENGES REMAIN
VVThe main issues that remain are the elite corruption and nepotism in the government, increasingly saturated the ‘higher’ up one looks48 – Georgia still suffers from a relatively weak Parliament (the concentration of power is in the executive branch), a weak judiciary, and a timid internal auditing office. Civil servants and others at the front-line who interact with the public maintain integrity in their services; however, it is the public officials and those higher in the government who sidestep the law.
VVPerhaps the greatest challenge that remains for Georgia is addressing and ceasing the practice of creating a legal infrastructure while embedding certain loopholes into it, that can later be used to circumvent the law. The example of public procurements has already been mentioned. Most strikingly, there are laws forbidding corruption in any public office, particularly conflict of interest laws and those regulating the behaviour of public officials in the private sector. However, there is no agency mandated with monitoring or enforcing these laws, so there is no mechanism once the laws have been breached[1].
88844. Tatum 2009, p.161
88845. Interview with the Eurasian Partnership Foundation; Tbilisi, February 2014
88846. Orkodashvili 2010
88847. Rostiashvili 2011
88848. Interview with Transparency International; Tbilisi, February 2014
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