“Young Barristers” sued against the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Trainings, a Legal entity of public law subordinated to the Election Administration of Georgia, due to the rejection of the grant proposal, submitted by organization.
Lasha Tsibadze, a lawyer with “Young Barristers” says, that the refusal of funding on behalf of the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Training is unsubstantiated and unjustified. The center didn’t provide sufficient explination according to which it had refused to fund the project. There is no discussion founf neither in the official refusal nor in the protocol provided by competition commission about the grant proposal submitted by “Young Barristers”, while there are some discussions recorded in the same documents about the reasonableness of grant applications submitted other organizations. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out what are the principles, approaches and decision-making frameworks, according to which the Center is satisfying certain proposals.
“Young Barristers” believes, that grant competition should not be discriminatory and giving grants should not depend on the name, forms of activities or civil position of the organization, submitting applications. The Center should also properly discuss applications, submitted by those non-governmental organizations, which have never been connected with either to the government or to the opposition, and which have never lobbed any political activities as well. The Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Trainings is a legal entity of public law subordinated to the Election Administration of Georgia funded by State Budget. Accountability and responsibility of such a Center should be based on trust, impartiality and transparency. However, it is unclear, what are the criteria, according to which the Center keeps on giving grants to the organizations founded by the leaders or members of “United National Movement”.
“Young Barristers” announces, that complaint against the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Trainings is not a deliberate act against the Agency and it only intends to establish the standards, when grantor will be free from any kind of political influence and provide real competitive, impartial and fair competition approaches. “Young Barristers” consider, that the law of Georgia on Grants should also be improved with respect of this direction. The grantor should be obliged to substantiate his refusal with specific reasons. Neither the applicable legislation, nor established practice do allow such a possibility.
“Young Barristers” considers it reasonable to note, that the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Trainings rejected “Young Barristers” grant proposal by the order adopted on June 16, 2015. The grant proposal of the organization, “My First Vote”, was intending to increase awareness and civic consciousness of the process of voting for 18 years old young people, participating in the parliamentary elections for the first time in 2016. The proposal got 61,25 points out of passing 70. This is the 3rd time the Center refuses to fund grant application submitted by organization. The organization is ready to make all grant proposals public, so that the society could assess the competence of projects.
