The Council of Europe, in cooperation with the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG), held a new edition of its awareness-raising trainings on “Fighting Corruption” which on October 25 took the anticorruption narrative to Batumi for local authorities from the Regions of Adjara and Guria, Georgia.
The discussions were led by the staff of the SSG’s Anti-corruption Agency (ACA) whom the Council of Europe had previously trained as local anti-corruption trainers. In the sessions, ACA trainers applied in practice the methods for the effective transfer of knowledge; as well as the techniques for designing efficient anti-corruption programmes; the setting of learning objectives, and other training methods on which they had been qualified by the Project.

It is within ACA’s mandate the prevention of corruption offences amongst public servants in state institutions and local municipalities. Through the training of trainers, the Project is supporting the sustainability of the Agency’s efforts against economic crime by equipping the authorities in Georgia with the expertise and capacities to replicate, with their own means, the trainings in other municipalities and state institutions. 

Acting as trainers, and with the support of a Council of Europe’s international expert, the ACA staff shared with representatives of the municipalities of Sakrebulo (local assembly) and Gambeoba (City Hall) of Adjara Region (Batumi, Kobuleti, Khelvachauri, Khulo, Shuakhevi, Kedi) and Guria Region (Lanchkhuti, Ozurgeti, Chokhatauri) basic anti-corruption concepts, and key tools in combating it; all of which illustrated with study cases drawn for the Agency’s real practice. The meeting also offered an opportunity for the ACA to share an overview of its mandate and activities. 

The core of the discussions was devoted to the prevention of conflict of interests; as well as to the protection of whistle-blowers, both of which topics of interest in the international anti-corruption agenda. Input from the Council of Europe’s international expert brought an international perspective and a benchmark approach to the exchanges amongst participants.

This training was a fifth edition of the Project’s efforts to take the anti-corruption discourse to different institutions and regions in Georgia, and it followed similar trainings that the Project has been organized for the representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development; the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (17 December 2021), the municipality of Tbilisi (18 December 2021) as well as the meetings convened for the Municipality of Kakheti (14-15 April 2022) and Imereti (23 September 2022) Regions.

This activity was organised in the framework of the project “Enhancing the systems of prevention and combating corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing in Georgia”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II. 

For more information, please visit the official website of the SSSG.