Main Findings

As a result of studying the donations to political parties from October 1 up to December 31, 2023, we have identified the following issues:

Statistics of donations 

• In the 4^th quarter of 2023, the amount of donations received by the Georgian Dream increased sharply to almost GEL 9.5 million, which is 93% of the donations received by all the parties.
• All the opposition parties have received donations of up to GEL 700,000 in total.
• The donations received by the Georgian Dream are 13 times as much as those received by all the other parties taken together.
• The Georgian Dream received donations from 284 persons, and all the other parties in total – from 130 persons.

Participation of companies connected with donors in procurements and state programs

• Eleven companies connected with the donors of the ruling party won tenders worth more than GEL 200 million in the second half of 2023; the same companies have won tenders worth more than GEL 1.7 billion since 2013.
• 24 companies connected with the donors of the Georgian Dream obtained simplified procurement contracts with a value of GEL 616,000 in the second half of 2023, while the same companies have obtained contracts worth more than GEL 10 million since 2013.
• None of the companies connected with donors of opposition parties won any tenders during the same period, while 3 such companies obtained simplified procurement contracts with a total value of GEL 15,000.
• Twenty-six companies connected with the donors of the Georgian Dream received funding of more than GEL 22 million from state-funded agricultural programs in the years 2017-2021, while 5 companies received funding of up to GEL 18 million from the grape harvest subsidy program in the years 2021-2022.

Donations presumably made through third persons 

• In addition to directors and partners of large business groups, the donors of the ruling party are often employees of companies who work in such positions as the financial officer, geologist, mechanic, head of workshop, etc. This raises a doubt that they are fictitious donors, while the real donor is concealed, which is a violation of law.    
• Such a practice was identified in connection with donors employed at RMG group, Anagi group, Alliance group, and Next group.
• Doubts about fictitious donation are also raised by donations made by a single group within a brief interval of time, which took place in connection with Lilo Mall LLC, when small interest holders of the company donated large amounts to the ruling party on the same day. 

Oversight on political parties

• In the 4^th quarter of 2023, the Anti-Corruption Agency requested information about 350 persons who were donors of 11 different parties from the Revenue Service with the aim of verifying the lawfulness of donations. From these physical persons, 175 were donors of the Georgian Dream and 175 had donated to other parties.    

Legislative changes

• Legislative changes of December 2023 made it illegal for legal persons to make a donation for the benefit of a political party; the changes also deceased the upper limit of expenses to be incurred by parties during a year. The changes are mostly of formal character, and they cannot eradicate a large financial inequality between the ruling party and other parties.