Development of Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan in the Field of Regional Development and Infrastructure (GE0052)

Development of transparency and integrity strategy and action plan in the field of regional development and infrastructure; The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia (hereafter, Ministry of Infrastructure) disposes huge amounts of budget funds annually. Hence, it is expedient to further improve the Ministry’s standard of transparency and integrity. The Ministry of Infrastructure, together with relevant international and nongovernmental organizations, is currently working on the development of the Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan in the Regional Development and Infrastructure. In the given strategy document the standards of transparency and integrity will be elaborated for the Ministry of Infrastructure and the entities under its system or management. In order to introduce these standards, an Action Plan will be developed. The introduction of the standards set forth in the document will eventually facilitate improvement of accountability and efficiency of the Ministry. Date of Implementation: 2016-2017; Issues to be Addressed: Currently there is no strategy document in the Ministry of Infrastructure setting out the transparent and accountable governance standards. Despite a good practice of the Ministry, it is essential to create a legislative framework for transparent and accountable governance, which, eventually, will facilitate improvement of accountability and efficiency.

11. Development of transparency and integrity strategy and action plan in the field of regional development and infrastructure

Commitment Text:

The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia (hereafter, Ministry of Infrastructure) disposes huge amounts of budget funds annually. Hence, it is expedient to further improve the Ministry’s standard of transparency and integrity. The Ministry of Infrastructure, together with relevant international and nongovernmental organizations, is currently working on the development of the Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan in the Regional Development and Infrastructure. In the given strategy document the standards of transparency and integrity will be elaborated for the Ministry of Infrastructure and the entities under its system or management. In order to introduce these standards, an Action Plan will be developed. The introduction of the standards set forth in the document will eventually facilitate improvement of accountability and efficiency of the Ministry.

Responsible institution(s): Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia

Supporting institution(s): Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Good Governance Initiative in Georgia (GGI) Program

Start Date: 2016 End Date: March 2017

Commitment Aim:

The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI) committed to approve a Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan with the overall objective to ensure a guiding document for transparency and integrity efforts in the Ministry and its subordinate units. [32]

Status

Midterm: Complete

The commitment was fully implemented by the midterm. The MRDI adopted the Transparency and Integrity Strategy and Action Plan in April 2017, which includes four thematic areas: 1) increasing transparency and civic participation; 2) strengthening ethics and integrity standards; 3) improving human resource management; and 4) enhancing planning, monitoring, and internal financial control systems. The Action Plan entails activities such as proactive publication of information, enhancing whistleblower protection, and an electronic module for collecting citizen input on political documents. CSOs were consulted in the drafting process and asked for their feedback. However, some of the participants claim that key recommendations were not taken into account, such as the importance of incorporating procurement into the document, which is an important area based on the Ministry’s line of work. According to the MRDI, policies on public procurement are made by the State Procurement Agency and the MRDI follows these rules as established through normative acts. [33]

By the midterm, the Ministry started implementing some activities under the Action Plan. Information on construction projects under sub-entities of the ministries were published on http://www.build.gov.ge. In terms of whistleblower protection, the Ministry’s website featured a link to the whistleblower form, which redirects the user to http://www.mkhileba.gov.ge, the whistleblower page of the Civil Service Bureau responsible for such claims. While some of the trainings for Ministry employees envisioned by the commitment were underway by the midterm, more capacity-building activities were planned. For more information, please see the 2016–2017 IRM midterm report. [34] 

The commitment was fully implemented by the midterm. The Ministry continued to publish information on projects on build.gov.ge. [35] The Ministry continued training employees on issues such as procedures for disclosing public information, as well as employee evaluations, project management, and more. [36]

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

While build.gov.ge provides information on projects for all subordinate units divided by their status (planned, current, implemented) and allows citizens to look up any project in the period of 2017−2020, project information is limited to: name, location, period of implementation, implementing entity, and the category (e.g., road reparation, drainage system, etc.). The website also provides a link to the procurement website, which gives more comprehensive information regarding the tender, price, and other accompanying documents such as project plans, and more. While information on the procurement website existed prior to build.gov.ge, build.gov.ge simplifies finding projects implemented by sub-Ministry bodies. The link to build.gov.ge, along with a link to the whistleblower page of the Civil Service Bureau was added to the websites of all sub-Ministry units.

The USAID project, Georgia Good Governance Initiative (GGI), which assisted MRDI in developing the strategy and the action plan, commented on the importance of the co-creation process, which featured both the adoption and the implementation of the strategy. In the future, GGI plans to collaborate with MRDI on improving the usability of build.gov.ge. [38]

Carried Forward?

The commitment was not carried into the new Action Plan 2018−2019. In order to continue progress in this area, MRDI would need to ensure the full implementation of the Transparency and Integrity Action Plan. In addition, to increase transparency of simplified procurement and electronic tenders, MRDI could disclose information on its deals in a user-friendly format, along with detailed decisions and accompanying statistical data.

[33] MRDI, comment received during the pre-publication review period.

[34] Lasha Gogidze and Tamar Gzirishvili, Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): Georgia Progress Report 2016-2017 (OGP, 30 Apr. 2018), https://bit.ly/2NIr097.

[35] Projects of the Municipal Development Fund are available at: http://mdf.org.ge/index.php?site-lang=en.

[36] Eka Sepashvili (Advisor to the Minister, MRDI), phone interview with IRM researcher, 29 Aug. 2018.

[37] Sepashvili, (MRDI), e-mail correspondence with IRM researcher, 10 Oct. 2018.

[38] Mikheil Darchiashvili (Governance Program Manager) and Levan Samadashvili (Chief of Party, Tetra Tech ARD), interview with IRM researcher, 17 Oct. 2018.