Economy Minister highlights transparency as “highest standard” “particularly required” of public organisations

Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili on Monday said transparency was “the highest standard required of everyone, particularly public organisations”, in comments on the controversial reintroduction of a bill on the transparency of foreign influence.

Davitashvili was making the remark on the initiative which calls for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, and has been met with public protests.

The Minister said opposition MPs who were “particularly opposing” the bill could “ask questions about specific articles and content of the legislative piece”.

“In the process of adopting the law, there will be substantive discussions in the parliamentary format. I think this is the right format to discuss specific issues”, he said.

We know that various political forces are represented in the Parliament [and] not [only] the majority. Therefore, opposition MPs who have special objections to the adoption of this law can ask questions about its specific articles and content”, Davitashvili added.

“Transparency is the highest standard that is required of everyone, especially of public organisations, as they are tasked with matters of public importance to serve the public interest. Therefore, the demand for transparency is legitimate”, he concluded.

The first reading of the legislative piece was supported last week by 83 MPs in the 150-member lawmaking body, on the backdrop of the protests and criticism by some of the country’s foreign partners.