GD head on US embassy statement on State Inspector’s Service: assessments are unfair

Head of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze says that the US Embassy to Georgia has made an ‘unfair and incorrect’ assessment on the State Inspector’s Service which could have been caused by ‘by a human mistake’ or wrong information. 

Kobakhidze also said that such statements affect the public trust in the country’s partners. The US Embassy says that the Georgian Dream ruling party ‘undermined’ government accountability last week by abolishing the State Inspector Service, which is mandated to investigate police abuse and protect data privacy. 

The embassy said that the party also undermined the independence of individual judges by amending the Law on Common Courts, and undermined faith in the judiciary by appointing yet another Supreme Court judge ‘using a flawed selection process.’ 

“ No credible reasons were provided to the public for why these actions needed to be rushed through without appropriate consultations,” said the embassy. 

Kobakhidze says that the US embassy statement came with ‘errors’ in its content, noting that the State Inspector’s Service has not been abolished, it was just split into two agencies because the investigative and personal data protection functions are ‘not compatible with each other.’ 

He says that Georgia has been successfully cooperating with its partners for 30 years and has been receiving and responding to  their advice. 

However, Kobakhidze noted that the country’s partners also make mistakes and release such ‘incorrect’ statements.