SDG: 16 Peace and Justice Strong Institutions

Progress:

In progress Mostly implemented

Order N 1/39 of the Minister of Internal Affairs On Approval of the Procedure of Statistical Data Production of 5 February 2019 prescribing statistical data production procedures, due dates, and responsible bodies was issued in the reporting period. Along with that, the responsible agency prepared a draft amendment/revision to Order N 1/39, which will be approved and published after having passed the legal expertise.

According to Order N 1/39, the number of disciplinary sanctions imposed on the employees of the Ministry by the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is available at www.info.police.ge. It should be noted that the aforementioned statistical information is annually published by the Ministry and is available for all interested parties. By the end of the reporting period, the statistics of 2013-2019 are published on the website.^[1]

As for the statistical information on administrative complaints submitted concerning the decision on refusal to issue public information, it is disclosed in the annual reports provided by Article 49 of the General Administrative Code of Georgia.[2] The website also contains the statistics of requests for public information and the release thereof.

The information available in the annual reports:

• Number of FOI requests and release statistics from structural sub-units and local agencies;
• Grounds for denials to release the information;
• Number of personal data processing (collection) and transfer to third parties following a request;
• Number of requests and refusals to rectify personal data in the relevant electronic databases of the Ministry;
• General topics of the requests, number of the requests and complaints submitted on refusal to issue public information;
• Information about FOI officers.

With respect to the development of the instruction on disciplinary proceedings, the Ministry looked into the practices and the regulatory framework of the agencies overseeing the police in the European countries and prepared the draft instructions for disciplinary proceedings thereunder.

After the State Inspector’s Service becomes operational, several changes are to be introduced into the daily activities of the General Inspection of the Ministry. Particularly, as a result of the changes, in case of identification of elements of the crime by a police inspector, the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will immediately transfer the case to the General Prosecutor’s Office and the State Inspector’s Service.

As for the promotion, incentivization and dismissal procedures, it should be noted that as a result of amendments entered into the Order N 995 of the Minister of Internal Affairs on Approval of the Rule of Service at the Ministry of Internal Affairs dated by 31 December 2013, recruitment of a police officer has been taking place on a competitive basis since 1 September 2018. Successful candidates are given a trial period. After the appointment for a trial period, the candidate takes an oath of a police officer and is granted a private rank. Besides, from the moment of recruitment, the person is enrolled in a special professional training program. The trial period, which also includes the professional training period, does not exceed one year. During this period, a person receives only half of the salary (financial remuneration) prescribed to the corresponding position and full salary (financial remuneration) when performing official duties.

During the promotion, including that to the managerial position and even to the Head of Department's position, passing a special training program and a course became mandatory for all employees.

Experts invited from the US studied and assessed the Ministry's current incentivization practices. As a result, no need for making changes to the incentivization and dismissal procedures was identified.

According to the Secretariat’s assessment, the commitment is mostly implemented by the end of the reporting period, as the Order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia N 1/39 On Approval of the Procedure of the Statistical Data Production dated by 5 February 2019 was issued in the reporting period and, also, a draft amendment was prepared for its further improvement. Besides, the number of disciplinary sanctions imposed on the employees by the General Inspection of the MIA Georgia is published on www.info.police.ge. The Ministry also looked into the practices and regulatory framework of the agencies overseeing the police in the European countries and prepared the draft instructions for disciplinary proceedings thereunder. International experts studied and assessed the existing incentivization practices of the Ministry.