Leave on OC Media? We also rely on them.
In the middle of the current global turbulence, small news channels like ours could be the first to close. Help us to pick up grants and become the first news page financed by reader in the Caucasus and keep telling the important stories.
Become a member
According to a new report by the local anti-corruption organization Transparency International (TI) Georgia, around 700 civil servants have been rejected from various agencies for “political reasons” since December 2024.
In the report published on Monday, it was underlined that the largest number of employees was rejected from the Georgia Ministry of Defense, the town hall of Justice House and the Central Election Commission. In addition, two entire institutions – the parliamentary research center and the public service – were closed.
According to Ti Georgia, the employees who were released or removed from their positions had signed protest statements against the suspension of European integration or expressed their critical position against government policy. “
In March 2025, the mayor and general secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream Party Kakha Kaladze reported that the employees were rejected from the municipal services of capital for political reasons. However, he also emphasized that it was “completely incomprehensible” for someone who worked in the town hall and at the same time criticized his policy.
Previously, in December 2024, Kaladze described the signing of petitions by community employees “Sabotage” and claimed that it was part of a “coup plan”. He noticed that such an attempt “would of course not be unanswered in the context of the constitution and the law”.
The mayor of Tbilisi, Kaladze, claims
Kakha Kaladze also emphasized that it was “completely incomprehensible” for someone who worked in the town hall and at the same time criticized his policy.
In her report, Ti Georgia also claimed that one of the main attempts by the Governing Georgian Dream Party to suppress ongoing protests is to complete the public service under the control of the party.
As proof of this, Ti Georgia found that the Georgian dream had initiated the legal contracts for the public service four times in the past three months, worsened considerably[ing] the legal protection of the civil servants and “effectively abolished[ing] The reform of the public service, which has been implemented for years with the support of international organizations and was the prerequisite for the integration of the country into European structures.
One of the changes was that the requirement that department heads and their deputies must take part in an open competition. In addition, civil servants are evaluated twice a year according to the new law. In view of the fact that two negative ratings correspond to a discharge, civil servants can be released in one year instead of two.
The recent change in the law occurred on April 1, when Georgian dream administrator passed a change in the law to combat corruption, which depends on the civil servants to participate in “scientific, pedagogical and artistic activities”, unless they have the “written consent of the head of the corresponding institution or one person given by the law. The only exceptions were the Georgian President MPs and the Georgian government.
The report also stated that the judiciary continued to “create artificial obstacles for the registration of an independent union for civil servants in parallel to the rejections of civil servants and the legislative changes.
Although the union was not officially registered together with the local social Justice Center, it has lodged the UN -International work organization to establish an investigative commission for the mass refereeing of civil servants, while the Georgian unions confederation (GTUC) has in a similar way against the violation of labor law.
Since the announcement by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze that the government would hire the country's EU accession offer in November 2024, Georgians held daily protests across the country. Human rights activists in Georgia have proposed that more than 400 demonstrators were arrested in November and December alone – a large number of them that they were suspended by law enforcement officers.
Disappeared for pronouncing – the “cleaning” of the public service of Georgia
Dozens of officials were released after they had shown themselves against the standstill of the EU membership process in Georgia.
