Performance of NGOs essentially lacks transparency and society has no information on who is financed for doing what. Such a statement made today the Prime Minister of Georgia.

“Misleading information is spread as if the Government and public institutions even currently have access to information on the funding of NGOs. This is false! We extracted information about 7 NGOs. They are the strongest, rather than rich in terms of their resources, as they stand out with their extreme rhetoric. It turns out that only about 18% of them have been reporting about their funding and expenditures since 2012. Namely, they were indicating without any further detail that 85 400 000 GEL has been raised in terms of funding. This information indicates that at least this much has also been spent by these NGOs.

Nevertheless, we have no information about the purpose of this funding, nor about their sources. Out of this amount, detailed information is available only about 18% of spending, i.e. 15 400 000 GEL. It can be easily said that at least 70 out of 85 million is spent without submitting any detailed information - constituting a lack of transparency. It turns out that neither the Government of Georgia has any information about it. I am saying nothing about this data being confided to tax authorities only. That is, I cannot even specify NGOs. Thus, society has access to no information about all these. Government agencies are only aware of as much as only 18% of this information.

It is also noteworthy that the bulk of their expenses is not reported to the Ministry of Finance at all.

Data does not include such items as their business trips, a big portion of their office rental fees, procurements carried out without an electronic waybill, which are rather substantial. Thus, it may be easily said that 82% if not 90% of their expenses lack transparency whatsoever. Society is practically having no access to this data, as it is not transparently reported. Even the Government has absolutely no access to this information about who was funding to do what. There is one NGO, which stands out with its financial position, but has only declared 0.4% of its data.

There are others, who stand out with their extreme rhetoric, but have reported nothing about what has been raised from where. It is a general picture about the matter. It evidences that NGOs essentially lack transparency and society has no information about who is financed to do what.

Misleading information is disseminated to claim that these funds are absolutely transparent, but facts indicate that no transparency is ensured. It is important for the society to have full information on all of these, including the sources and purpose of funding granted to NGOs, respective media outlets; it is utterly important for the newly-initiated Draft Law to be passed therefore”, - concluded Irakli Kobakhidze.