20 Years without Parliamentary Oversight

‘20 Years without Parliamentary Oversight’ is a research report, which studied the practice of parliamentary oversight over the performance of the Interior Ministry, State Security Service, Intelligence Service and Crisis Management Council. The research was conducted by an initiative group with the support of Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF). The results were released on March 15, 2017.

According to the research, the parliamentary oversight of these institutions is characterized by important shortcomings. Along with inefficient legislation, the Parliament fails to exercise its authorities effectively.

The research focuses on a number of problematic issues, eradication of which will make the Parliament’s performance more effective, efficient and relevant to international experience.

The following legislative problems are worth noting:

• The Parliament has no levers at its disposal to impose political responsibility on a separate minister;
• The Parliament’s regulation does not clearly impose an obligation on the Prime Minister to submit annual oral report;
• The procedures of asking questions to the minister as well as of governmental hour are obscure and faulty;
• The Parliament’s defense and security committee has a broad mandate and carries out simultaneous oversight of several bodies that makes its performance inconvenient;
• The necessity to gain the parliamentary majority’s support to set up an investigative commission makes this mechanism of parliamentary oversight ineffective;
• The procedures of appointment and dismissal of the heads of Intelligence and State Security Services are based on the logic of politically motivated decision making that undermines the independence of these institutions.

Problems related to implementation:

• Prime Ministers were constantly violating the timeframes of submitting written reports;
• The Parliament of the 8^th convocation did not ask even a single question; neither did it hold a governmental hour;
• The Parliament’s defense and security committee is scarcely oriented to oversight and it is mostly involved in legislative activities;
• The legislative body does not react to the cases of neglecting lawmakers’ questions by a relevant official.

The goal of the presentation is to acquaint government agencies, professional circles and interested persons with the issues discussed in the research, relevant findings and recommendations, as well as to hold a discussion and share opinions.