On October 17, the Auditor General of the State Audit Office Irakli Mekvabishvili, Deputy Auditor General Ekaterine Gazadze and Head of Financial Monitoring Service of Political Parties Zurab Aznaurashvili met with representatives of 9 local and 3 international non-governmental organizations within the framework of the Temporary Advisory Commission working on the transparency of political finances and monitoring legality issues. Goal of the meeting: discussion of the interim report of monitoring of 2017 local self-government elections.
The following organizations took part in the meeting:
- IRI Georgia
- National Democratic Institute (NDI)
- International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
- Transparency International - Georgia
- Georgian Young Lawyers Association
- Civil Society And Democracy Development Center
- International Center for Democratic Initiatives
- International Center for Civil Culture
- New Generation - For Democratic Georgia
- New Generation - Democratic Elections
- Institutional Development and Monitoring Center
- Free choice
At the meeting the State Audit Office presented the following issues for discussion:
- Review of donors study process.
- Discussion of 15 complaints / information received by the State Audit Office on the alleged violation of the legislation and measures carried out by the SAO.
- Information about the process of submission of information by the political parties and penalty of 37 independent candidates in the first round, 24 independent candidates and 2 political parties in the second round for non-submission of the information.
- Information about the expenditures and revenue analysis of political parties in the period of the elections setting day to October 2, was presented within 6-day period.
As a result of the meeting, the parties agreed on the continuation of future cooperation in terms of monitoring of election finances as well as enhancing of transparency of political finances and service development issues.
