Message from Gia Areshidze
Project Manager and Senior Fellow, PSI

Welcome and thank you for stopping by!

This is a web page for a project entitled "Business Monitoring of the Georgian Administrative Code," conceived and administered by the Center for the Study of Free Markets, Competition and Private Enterprise at the Partnership for Social Initiative, a public policy think tank in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Background

Because of the lack of proper and swift implementation of new laws, the confidence in the rule of law, one of the pillars of modern government, is under threat in Georgia. In a short span of five years, with rapid and sometimes chaotic lawmaking spurts, the Georgian Parliament has passed over 700 new pieces of legislation. While this has helped to provide the basis for a new legal framework, there have been drawbacks: lack of mechanisms for effective implementation, governmental administrative lethargy, contradiction within the different laws, specifically and structurally. One of the most important pieces of legislation passed by the Georgian Parliament thus far is the Administrative Code, which went into effect January 1, 2000. Unfortunately, implementation of the Administrative Code in Georgia has been neither swift nor effective.

The Administrative Code defines government structures and functions and has a significant impact on the political, social and economic environments. It is widely seen by Western and domestic observers as one of the most progressive legal acts in the former Soviet Union. It was written in order to provide for transparent lawmaking through the administrative process and to guarantee participation of the civil society in the decision making process. Its purposes also include holding Georgian administrative bodies accountable and decreasing the contradictions among laws by providing a transparent administrative system.

About the Project

Because PSI staff believes that a swift implementation of the Code will help develop the rule of law and democratic transparency in Georgia, it developed a four-phase project to monitor the government's implementation of the law. The project approaches the Administrative Code specifically through the eyes of businesses and business associations.

During the first phase of the project, PSI's staff will publish a report on the Administrative Code, comprised of a legal analysis, survey of businesses and business associations, analysis of the survey by a multi-disciplined working group, and monitoring of 10 specific cases.

During the second phase, PSI will build and mobilize a coalition of businesses and business associations to advocate and monitor the implementation of the Code through seminars, television appearances, advocacy efforts and writing newspaper and journal articles.

During the third phase, PSI will develop an internet website and put all this written material (in English and Georgian) on this site as part of a mass media campaign by the coalition to advocate for the swift implementation of the code.

During the fourth and final phase, PSI will organize a Conference in Tbilisi entitled "Georgian Administrative Code: Business Benefits and Perspectives" for all stakeholders in the process.

About this Web Site

This Web site will be constantly updated and will serve as the primary resource of communication between various stakeholders. We therefore ask you to check back often

Feel free to visit visit PSI's main web site for further information about the organization and its other public policy activities.

If you have any additional questions, please fill free to contact me at gia@psigeorgia.org.

Thank you again for stopping by,

Gia Areshidze
Project Manager and Senior Fellow, Partnership for Social Initiative
Director, PSI's Center for the Study of Free Markets, Competition and Private Enterprise

August 2001

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