Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), a Tbilisi-based watchdog has published a report exposing extensive employment of judges’ family members throughout the public sector, pointing to nepotism and corruption.
The IDFI document based its assessments on the asset declarations of 28 Supreme Court judges, 84 Court of Appeals judges, and 209 city court judges focusing merely on immediate family members and omitting siblings, parents, or other relatives of judges.
The report found that family members of almost one-third (90) of the acting judges of Georgia are employed in public service. Of these 51 family members are employed in different courts across Georgia.
In 60 cases out of those 90, a family member was employed, promoted, or changed the job position after the judge’s appointment, with the total salaries of family members amounting to three million GEL in only 2021.
The IDFI also focused on the judges’ spouses and found that out of 84 judges at Tbilisi and Kutaisi Courts of Appeals 13 have children employed in the judiciary.
While the IDFI concedes that not all cases would merit to be considered nepotism, as judges exclude most of their family members from their declaration it is impossible to comprehend the full scale of the problem.
Political control over the judiciary by the Government and Bidzina Ivanishvili in particular exercised through the so-called clan of judges has been widely regarded as one of Georgia’s most acute problems.
The problem of the independence of the judiciary is also prominently featured in the EU’s 12 recommendations presented by the European Commission in order for Georgia to be able to obtain the club’s candidacy status which it was denied, unlike Moldova and Ukraine.
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