Civicidea

While “Georgian Dream” continues to entrench its control over Georgia’s public institutions and state resources, the country’s anti-corruption mechanisms are being repurposed not to hold those in power accountable, but to target independent civil society organizations in Georgia.

Independent monitoring reveals that since 2013, companies linked to “Georgian Dream’s” officials and the party’s founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, have secured over 3.28 billion GEL in state tenders. Of this, 1.028 billion GEL was allocated to companies connected to donors of the ruling party between 2020 and 2024, with their donations totaling 7.7 million GEL.

Corrupt activities related to state tenders are multifaceted and include non-competitive procurements and simplified tenders, which favor companies closely associated with the ruling party. Additionally, employment programs that are formally intended to support vulnerable citizens often redirect public funds to further the party’s narrow interests, financing informal networks of party affiliates. It is also notable that public officials are involved in opaque property transactions, with many cases of undeclared property. Between 2024 and 2025, over 34 million GEL worth of property, including cash and real estate, was transferred to officials. These transactions are formally recorded as gifts, but in practice, they function as an alternative form of corruption aimed at maintaining political loyalty and distributing influence. However, these matters are not reflected in the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s 2023-2024 reports, despite the Bureau’s legal mandate to monitor officials’ asset declarations and respond to suspicious transactions.

The Bureau’s reports are formal and fail to document any instances of elite corruption, conflicts of interest, or specific property transaction evaluations. This demonstrates that the Bureau is not fulfilling its preventive or oversight functions, but rather serving political purposes of retaliation.

As a result, while “Georgian Dream” publicly claims to fight corruption, in practice, state resources are being seized by the political elite and businesses linked to the party, enriching themselves at the cost of transparency, fair competition, and public accountability.

At the same time, the State Anti-Corruption Bureau is being used as a tool to persecute independent civil society organizations. The Bureau has compelled these organizations to provide extensive data, including personal information and retroactive details from 2024 onward, which represents an unprecedented intrusion into the autonomy of civil society.

On September 4, 2025, the Bureau began “monitoring” over 80 non-governmental organizations under controversial amendments made to the “Law on Grants” earlier this year in April. These amendments contradict the freedom of association guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia and disproportionately target organizations working on human rights and democratic accountability.

These actions reflect a growing trend in which the captured state apparatus seeks to restrict civil sector activities while corrupt government representatives remain untouchable. Control becomes repression, disguised as justice. When accountability is only applied to civil society, not to the powerful and corrupt, it becomes repression masked as oversight, stifling civic freedoms and limiting civil society’s ability to monitor, speak out, and hold power accountable – a direct threat to Georgia’s democratic future.

The dual reality is clear: while high-ranking officials of the “Georgian Dream” and businesses associated with them are embroiled in corruption, the oversight mechanisms created by the “Georgian Dream” are being used against the very organizations that seek to expose this corruption. This cannot be construed as anti-corruption policy. Instead, it is a protection racket for corruption, one that persecutes the independent civil sector fighting to expose them.