Transparency International: corruption levels in Georgia in 2025 raise concern
Corruption report in Georgia — 2025
On 9 December, International Anti-Corruption Day, Transparency International Georgia (TI) issued a statement noting that corruption levels in Georgia at the end of 2025 are alarming. The organisation assessed that Georgia is now a kleptocratic state.
“In such countries, the sole aim and motivation of the ruling elite is personal enrichment, achieved by plundering citizens and the state. Resources amassed through corruption are then used to maintain power.
The rule of Bidzina Ivanishvili, who heads a captured state, is based on the loyalty of a specific group, which he allows to enrich itself through corruption and then uses these resources to subjugate state institutions and preserve his own power.
Corruption and the damage it causes are expected to increase in the future,” the organisation writes.
Corruption report in Georgia — 2025: Transparency International
- State capture is complete — there is no independent government body able to speak openly about corruption or take meaningful action against it.
- A kleptocracy is taking shape — the number of documented corruption cases in the highest echelons of power, their nature, and the identities of those involved point to systemic corruption at the top levels of government.
- Anti-corruption efforts are performative — investigative bodies serve internal conflicts and disputes within the ruling party, while hundreds of documented cases of high-level corruption remain unresolved.
- The Anti-Corruption Bureau is being abolished — the agency, created just three years ago to prevent corruption, has been turned into a repressive tool against the non-governmental sector. It is now being dismantled, along with its key anti-corruption functions: monitoring officials’ asset declarations, overseeing political finance, developing the national anti-corruption strategy, participating in international anti-corruption platforms, protecting whistleblowers, and controlling conflicts of interest.
- International obligations and recommendations on corruption are ignored — Georgia openly rejects anti-corruption requirements developed by the European Commission and GRECO. The country has also withdrawn from major international anti-corruption processes, such as the OECD Anti-Corruption Network assessments and the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
- The country has lacked a national anti-corruption strategy for the fifth consecutive year, meaning that for more than five years, no state institution has considered what corruption risks exist, where they are growing, and what measures are needed to reduce them.
- Collaboration between state institutions and civil society is prohibited by law. Civil society, a key component of successful anti-corruption efforts, particularly at the elite level, is being persecuted and pushed to the brink of extinction. Participation of civil society in decision-making has been legally abolished, in direct violation of the UN Convention against Corruption.
Corruption report in Georgia — 2025
