Page 12 - GEORptFeb21

Georgia’s corrupted anti-corruption strategy
Transparency International this week pointed to Georgia as an example of how not to do things once you have earnt initial plaudits as a country moving ahead with anti-corruption efforts.​ “Georgia’s anti-corruption reforms stall amid political crisis and allegations of state capture,” was the headline on a blog post the Berlin-based NGO put out with its Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 (​CPI 2020​) released on January 28.
Georgia’s score of 56 points in the index is unchanged from 2019, when it dropped by two points compared with 2018. In fact, its score has actually stagnated since 2016, after rallying for two years from 2014.
“In a country once celebrated as a reformer, anti-corruption efforts have visibly stagnated over nearly a past decade,” TI Georgia stated in the blog post.
This statement needs some explanation since it might be seen to conflict with the data. Tracking the CPI scores reveals a sharp improvement over the initial years of the decade and stagnation thereafter—but, as it precisely reflects “perceptions” rather than fixed reality, the noted improvement might rather have reflected expectations ahead of the new regime that took office in 2012, when billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili was appointed as prime minister after the victory of the six-party Georgian Dream coalition.
12​ GEORGIA Country Report​ February 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com