Transparency International Georgia publishes assessment of the performance of the Parliament of the 9th convocation.

“Constitutional reform was implemented in the course of the past four years, and the country has fully moved to a parliamentary system of governance. The Parliament of the Ninth Convocation had to perform its legislative and oversight roles during a state of emergency and against the background of tense political events, which has made even more apparent the shortcomings that have been observed in the process of parliamentary work for years.

The improvement of legislative norms has had a positive impact on the practice of exercising parliamentary control. However, despite progress, parliamentary control processes remain a problem, with the role of the opposition in the process of exercising parliamentary control, issues of accountability and responsibility of both MPs and members of the government.

An interim fact-finding commission was set up in the 9th convocation parliament for the first time according to the initiative of the opposition, but the parliament did not share/agree with the commission"s conclusion.

General statistics:

There were 230 plenary sessions held by the Parliament of the Ninth Convocation (including five extraordinary and 47 special sessions). No plenary session was thwarted due to the absence of quorum;
In the course of four years, the Parliament passed 2,204 laws; government initiatives enjoyed the Parliament’s support most frequently;[1]
As for the support for the draft laws initiated by the opposition, the opposition[2] initiated 217 draft laws of which the Parliament supported only four draft laws (three legislative initiatives)[3]. Also, there were instances when opposition MPs and members of the majority were co-initiators; specifically, 10 legislative initiatives were proposed this way at various times (38 draft laws), four of these proposals were adopted (21 draft laws);[4]
65 MPs posed a total of 2,350 questions to accountable officials;
7 interpellations were conducted. In six out of seven instances, opposition factions were the authors of written questions; in one case it was the majority faction;
The Minister"s Hour was held 14 times. According to the schedule, 11 ministerial hours were to be held by 2020, 7 of which were not held;
17 requests for the establishment of a commission of inquiry were registered, but only one was made in connection with the tragedy on Khorava Street. In all cases, the initiators were opposition factions;
16 thematic research groups have been set up in the parliament.

Important Developments

Creation of the Constitutional Commission and the process of revising the Constitution
Hosting the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (chaired by Russian Duma Member Gavrilov) and the protest wave
Election of the Supreme Court judges
Creation of the Temporary Commission of Inquiry into the Khorava Case
Quitting parliamentary majority and dissolution of the minority
Open Government Partnership (OGP)sakartvelos_parlamentis_ix_mocvevis_otxcliani_angarishi_2.pdf
Declaring the State of Emergency and the Parliament’s activities in the process of managing the pandemic

Assess the legislative changes adopted by the Parliament

Among the progressively assessed laws are: New Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, Initiative on sexual harassment, Code on the Rights of the Child, New law on persons with disabilities, Electronic bracelet to monitor violent offenders, Ratification of Istanbul Convention Action against violence against women and domestic violence corresponding amendments.
Positive Laws and Legislative Amendments in Need of Improvement: Code of Ethics, Institutionalisation of Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), Establishment of the National Security Council, New occupational safety law, New regulation on remuneration in public service.
Negative Legislative Amendments: Imposing restrictions without declaring state of emergency, Changes to the rules of filling out asset declarations and liability in case of violation, Establishment of the Operational Technical Agency, Abolition of self-governing entities.
Reforms Implemented with Significant Shortcomings: Election reform, Judicial reform.
Information on the activities of each member of Parliament:
In 9th convocation of the Parliament the following members were active in the parliament:
The most number of speeches - Eka Beselia (813)
The author of most deputy questions - Sergi Kapanadze (454)
The initiator of the most draft laws - Anri Okhanashvili (262)
The author of the most laws - Anri Okhanashvili (215)
The most missed justified absences from plenary sessions - Koba Nakhopia (163)
The most missed unjustified absences from plenary sessions - Shota Shalelashvili (33)
The most missed justified absences from committee sessions - Giorgi Bokeria (157)
The most missed unjustified absences from committee sessions - Nato Chkheidze (40)

Passive MPs

In the 9th convocation’s parliament, 20 MPs did not use their right to a speech during the reporting period at all: Ruslan Gajiev, Valeri Gelashvili, Paata Gogokhia, Elguja Gotsiridze, Makhir Darziev,[5] Mukhran Vakhtangadze, Jumber Izoria, Zaza Kedelashvili, Teimuraz Kokhreidze, Ioseb Makrakhidze, Samvel Manukyan, Enzel Mkoyan, Roman Muchiashvili, Ramaz Nikolaishvili, Dimitri Samkharadze, Erekle Tripolski, Goderdzi Chankseliani, Irakli Khakhubia, Viktor Japaridze, Levan Bezhanidze. For comparison, Zaza Kedelashvili, Enzel Mkoyan and Ramaz Nikolaishvili did not use their right to a speech in the parliament of the eighth convocation.

Transparency International Georgia presents recommendations, which we consider important for the Parliament of the 10th convocation to take into account in the process of conducting its activities:

The Parliament must continue working on the necessary reforms; noteworthy among them are the election reform and the creation of an anti-corruption agency which would be effective in investigating and responding to the alleged cases of high-level corruption;
Experts and civil society members must be actively involved in the legislative process, committees must form working groups on important legislative amendments more often;
It is important that the consideration of draft laws occurs within the time frames established by the Rules of Procedure, and that the number of draft laws considered under the expedited procedure is reduced;
During a crisis situation that is especially serious for the country (e.g. during a pandemic), the Parliament must become more active, including in terms of the parliamentary oversight – not hand over all powers to the executive government;
In order to efficiently exercise oversight over the government, it is important for the opposition to be equipped with appropriate oversight mechanisms;
The Parliament must improve the mechanisms of oversight over the security sector;
The government members must not evade parliamentary oversight and, in the event they fail to answer an MP’s question or appear at a session, corresponding sanctions must be defined by the law;
The mechanisms of the parliamentary oversight must be used more intensively: it is important to increase the periodicity of interpellation, simplify the procedure of summoning government members or other officials accountable to the Parliament to committee sessions, debates must be held after the Prime Minister’s annual or special reports and after Minister’s Hours;
With regard to the entry into the Parliament building, it is important that unsubstantiated refusals to let persons in no longer take place – something that happened on numerous occasions during the reporting period;
MPs must actively attend parliamentary sessions and participate fully in the Parliament’s work”, - reads the report.