The NGO “Young Barristers” is not going to appeal against CEC’s decision of August 12, 2015 in Tbilisi City Court, however it will start public process in order to make grant policy of the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Trainings more justified, fair and transparent.
“Young Barristers” states, that today, CEC has considered administrative complaint of the organization against the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Trainings to abolish its order of June 16, 2015 rejecting “Young Barristers” grant application. The organization has appealed against this decision and noted, that grant competition should not be discriminatory and giving grants should not be depended 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 been lobbing any political activities as well. It is unclear, what is the criteria, according to which the Center keeps on giving grants to the organizations which are in most cases, according to the Public Registry extracts, founded by one and the same person.
Archil Kaikatsishvili, the Head of “Young Barristers” stated during administrative proceeding, that that the refusal of funding on behalf of the Center of Electoral System Development, Reforms and Training is unsubstantiated and unjustified. It is difficult to figure out what are the principles, approaches and decision-making frameworks, according to which the Center is satisfying certain proposals. He explained the reasons, why the organization thinks that the grant policy of the Training Center is discriminatory, why can certain projects be blocked or on the contrary, how are they taking priority over the others, why are not professional but small and non-dominant organizations given a chance to strengthen their civil activities, what has to be changed within the system. Mr. Kaikatsishvili considers, that CEC should think before it decides to fund organizations closely related to certain political parties because of political loyalty. He appealed to the Chairman of the CEC to study statements, made by the Heads of certain MGOs, providing that, most amount of money allocated for grants are distributed between 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 will provide real competitive, impartial and fair competition approaches. Irakli Chkoidze, the member of CEC, proposed to revise the composition of the Training Center Commission and Zurab KHrikadze, another CEC member suggested, that some kind of audit should be implemented in order to verify if the organizations, granted by the Training Centers are fulfilling their duties properly. Archil Kaikatsishvili concluded, that “Young Barristers” will not cease institutional dialogue with CEC and the Training Center and will carefully observe the Center’s grant policy and monitor the transparency of the fund, financed from the State budget.
“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 not going to appeal against CEC decision of August 12, 2015 over the case, since it believes, that administrative proceeding has identified the problems existing in the system and the organization is planning to actively cooperate with the Agency in order to overcome those problems.
