Reports have emerged suggesting that Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Bureau is to be abolished, shortly after the agency denied that its head had resigned. The rumours come amidst an ostensible purge by the ruling Georgian Dream party against its former allies.
On Tuesday, opposition leaning TV channel Formula reported that the bureau’s head, Razhden Kuprashvili, had been dismissed. They cited employees of the agency who had reportedly attended a meeting announcing his dismissal.
‘Kuprashvili has not been seen in public for several days’, Formula continued. ‘His last statement to the media concerned the investigation against [former] Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili’.
In late-October, Gharibashvili was charged with laundering roughly $6.5 million as part of a high-profile corruption case. He has confessed his guilt and faces up to 12 years in prison.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
Shortly after Formula’s report was released, OC Media reached out to the Anti-Corruption Bureau for comment. Their spokesperson responded saying information about Kuprashvili’s resignation was false.
On Wednesday, Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili also commented on the rumours, saying he did not see any reason for Kuprashvili’s dismissal.
‘No. Why should I? It is not my competence to appoint or dismiss people in such an institution’, he said, according to IPN.
Papuashvili also added that he believed the bureau’s ‘main challenge’ was its name.
‘You hear the name “Anti-Corruption Bureau” and you think that this is an investigative agency that directly fights corruption. This is not so. This is a false narrative that you are trying to establish based on the name’, he said.
According to pro-government media outlet Imedi, Papuashvili also mused over the bureau’s functions, which he said had been added to over time.
‘From the initial function, which was to ensure the completion of declarations by public officials, strategy development was added, then control of foreign funding was added’, he said, as cited by Imedi. ‘Which of course presents challenges, but I think the way the bureau operates is satisfactory’.
Later on Tuesday evening, Georgian media outlet Commersant cited sources as saying that parliament — fully under Georgian Dream party’s control — was preparing a ‘legislative initiative’ that would abolish the Anti-Corruption Bureau and have its functions be handed over to the State Security Service (SSG) and the Audit Service.
On Wednesday, Kuprashvili told reporters that he was not leaving and would remain as the bureau’s head.
‘I am staying at work. Thank you for your emotion and interest. As you can see, I came to work, I will continue my work. As long as this agency exists, I will be its head’, Kuprashvili told reporters, according to BM.ge.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau and its head Kuprashvili have been instrumental in the Georgian government’s crackdown on civil society and independent media.
On Monday, independent media outlet Indigo announced that the bureau launched an inquiry into it under the law on grants — a law that prohibits organisations from receiving donor funding without government approval.
Indigo was the latest media or civil society organisation to be audited by the bureau.
Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning
