394 Officials or Family Members Received 27.8 Million in Gifts

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According to the research of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), in the years 2020-2022, 394 officials of the executive branch or their family members received 27.8 million GEL in gifts. Within the executive branch, the employees of the law enforcement agencies and the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the most gifts.

Between the years 2020-2022, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Khatuna Totladze received a total of 1,359,416 GEL as gifts from her mother and grandmother.

In 2020-2021, Liana Lataria, head of the Division of Neighboring Countries of the same ministry, received 804,765 GEL in gifts from her parents.

In 2020, the head of the Construction Supervision and Quality Control Department of the Ministry of Defense received real estate worth 200 thousand dollars as a gift from his father.

The wife of the deputy head of the Revenue Service received real estate worth 450 thousand GEL as a gift from her parents.

In 2020-2022, Teimuraz Paichadze, Deputy Head of the Department of Hydromelioration and Land Management of the Ministry of Environmental protection received land plots worth 230,000 USD and a cash sum of 5,400 USD and 15,500 GEL as gifts from his parents.

In 2022, the parent of Levan Dzgharkava, the head of the Department of Environmental Supervision, gifted him 140 thousand US dollars received from the sale of real estate.

The Prosecutor of the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and of the Department of the Central Criminal Police received 110,000 USD from his mother as a gift from the sale of real estate.

The head of the Internal Audit Department of the Ministry of Culture received 50,000 USD as a gift in 2020 and again in 2021.

Among the officials receiving hefty sums as gifts from their families is the Prime Minister, who was gifted 150 thousand GEL each year in 2020 and 2021 (300 thousand in total). The transaction statement says this sum came from the parent’s savings, however, IDFI points out that the origin of these supposed savings is vague.

The officials received 90% (25.1 mln) of gifts from their family/close relatives, 8% (2.1 mln) from such relatives from whom receiving gifts is limited by law, and the remaining 2% (0.6 million) from friends, work and other sources. 

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