TBILISI, September 21 – Georgia’s State Audit Office has opened an inquiry into the funding of a school backed by the Council of Europe, after government officials alleged that a seminar held last week may have broken the country’s rules on foreign grants.
The inquiry concerns the Tbilisi School of Political Studies, a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1999 and headed by politician Armaz Akhvlediani. The school operates under the auspices of the Council of Europe, a Strasbourg-based international organization separate from the European Union.
The dispute centers on a seminar held last week in Bakhmaro, a mountain resort in western Georgia. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili have questioned whether the school received foreign funding without the government approval they say was required under Georgia’s law on grants.
On Monday, Papuashvili said the government had not received an application to approve a grant, while the Council of Europe’s media office had said the funding was not a grant. He suggested that the Council’s local office might instead have paid directly for the seminar’s hotel, transport, meals and speakers.
Papuashvili argued that such payments could amount to an attempt to circumvent the grants law if they were, in substance, funding for the school’s activities. He said the Audit Office should establish what happened and warned that a finding of unlawful conduct would be a scandal for the Council of Europe’s local office.
The speaker went far in criticizing Akhvlediani’s political views, alleging that the school’s activities promoted radicalism, Interpressnews reported. The news agency did not include any response to the allegations from Akhvlediani.
The Audit Office confirmed Monday afternoon that its financial transparency department had begun examining whether the school received a grant without government consent. In a later statement, it said it would review relevant documents and question anyone who might have information about the funding.
The law on grants is among several recent legislative moves by Georgian Dream to rein in the foreign funding of civil society groups.
