Speaker: Event organised by Armaz Akhvlediani raises suspicions of law evasion; it would be a major scandal if the Council of Europe local office is involved

“We have seen an outright admission that the event organised by Armaz Akhvlediani, head of the School of Political Studies, was funded from abroad. We saw the Government Administration’s position confirming that no approval for any grant was ever requested. Subsequently, the Council of Europe office clarified that this was not a grant. If it was not a grant, then what was it?” stated Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili.

Papuashvili was asked to comment on reports regarding an educational seminar held in Bakhmaro, organised by Armaz Akhvlediani and funded by the Council of Europe, an event attended by EU Ambassador Paweł Herczyński, where it remains unclear whether state approval was granted in compliance with the Law on Grants.

The Parliamentary Speaker noted that the State Audit Office will examine whether the arrangement constitutes a deliberate bypass of national legislation.

“When we were adopting the Law on Grants, the initial draft included a requirement that all foreign expenditure, including direct spending by international organisations, had to receive government approval. Embassies subsequently requested flexibility, arguing that public diplomacy forms part of embassy operations, involves expenditure, and should not require government authorisation. Consequently, the final version of the law reflected that direct operational expenses do not require prior consent. However, during those discussions, we explicitly warned them: keep in mind that this exemption applies strictly to direct embassy or organisational operations, and we trust it will not be exploited to circumvent the law.

Regarding the Bakhmaro gathering, I harbour strong suspicions that we may be dealing with an attempt to bypass Georgian law, essentially a scheme to evade legal restrictions. Whereas previously the Council of Europe would award a grant to radical politician Armaz Akhvlediani’s project to host meetings, the latest clarifications suggest that no grant was issued this time. Under a grant, Akhvlediani himself would have had to book the hotel, hire buses, cover catering, and pay experts or speakers. Now, instead of a grant, we may be seeing a scheme where the local Council of Europe office directly booked the hotel and buses, paid for meals, and compensated the experts or speakers. If that is indeed the case, it is an overt circumvention of the law.

Regrettably, our trust in foreign donors was shattered after we were misled in 2023 regarding the transparency law. We withdrew the legislation back then on the understanding that everything would be made fully transparent and that donors had no issue with transparency. Yet we were misled and strung along for an entire year. I appealed to them both privately and publicly, telling NGOs to set up their own websites and disclose their funding voluntarily. They deceived us for a year, which is precisely why we ultimately enacted the law.

Because trust was lacking, the law explicitly stipulates that if an agreement is structured as a service contract rather than a grant, but is fundamentally a grant in substance, it constitutes a simulated transaction, will be treated as a grant, and remains subject to the same legal principles. This entire setup looks like a flimsy attempt to circumvent the law. It would be a catastrophic scandal if the local Council of Europe office were embroiled in such an affair. Georgia is a member state of the Council of Europe; it is not just any organisation. If the Council of Europe breaks laws and attempts to bypass legislation in a member state, it represents a monumental scandal for its local office.

We shall see; I cannot state anything with absolute certainty, which is why the State Audit Office is investigating the matter. If these allegations are substantiated, it may necessitate legislative revisions. This would represent an absolute mockery of our nation’s laws. It is ironic that those who search for loopholes to evade sanctions then preach to us about avoiding sanction evasion. We shall await the outcome of this inquiry,” Papuashvili declared.