Statement of the Non-Governmental Organizations on the Parliament-Initiated Draft Law

 May 14, 2014 

On February 25, 2014, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Transparency International – Georgia (TI), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Open Society – Georgia Foundation  (OSGF) have commented on the amendments to the law of Georgia on the “Civil Service”. 

These amendments were introduced within the scope of the local self-government reform and envisaged recognizing absolutely all of the local self government public servants to be temporary acting employees and announcing competition to their positions following the 2014 local self-government elections. The above organizations criticized this regulation and considered it to be in contradiction with the Constitution. Therefore, we called upon the Government of Georgia – the Parliament of Georgia and the Executive Branch of the Government of Georgia to undertake all possible measures and not allow the enactment of such a regulation. Otherwise, we would have addressed the Constitutional Court with the request to declare the mentioned amendment to the law on the “Civil Service” to be invalid. The proposed amendments were negatively evaluated by the Professional Union of the Public Servants and the Ombudsman of Georgia as well.

 

On May 13, the draft law, initiated and elaborated by the Parliamentarians - Gia Zhorzholiani and Vakhtang Khmaladze, was registered at the bureau session. It is planned to consider the draft law through the accelerated procedures. The draft law invalidates the February-enacted provision in the law on the “Civil Service”, which entailed dismissing public servants after the next local self-government elections. We welcome the initiation of such a draft law and call upon the Members of the Parliament to support it, for avoiding the violation of the labor rights of the public servants following the local self-government elections.   

 

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) 

Transparency International – Georgia (TI) 

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) 

Open Society – Georgia Foundation (OSGF) 

Civil Development Agency (CiDA)