At a plenary session of the Parliament of Georgia, a member of the Parliamentary Majority, Giga Bukia, stated that in 2004-2012, 5,634 individuals donated their property to the state for free. There was not a single case of this happening in the last two years. Mr Bukia believes that is proof that the current government, as opposed to the previous one, does not exert any pressure upon businesses.

took interest in the MP’s statement and verified the numbers he provided.

requested the respective information from this Ministry which then passed on our request to the National Agency of State Property. According to the information received from the National Agency of State Property, in 2004-2012, 605 individuals and legal entities donated their property (as a gift) to the state for free whilst in 2013-2014 this number was 32. Of note is that these statistics do not include property donated for free to local self-government bodies.

Transparency International Georgia conducted research to study the cases of the voluntary donation of property to the state in the years of 2004-2007 and 2008-2012. According to the research, the total value of the voluntarily donated property to the state in 2004-2007 was GEL 137.8 million, USD 6 million and EUR 10,000. It must be taken into account that this sum includes the properties which were donated by state companies and local self-government bodies to the state. In 2008-2012, the total value of donated property to the state amounted to GEL 25.2 million and USD 5.6 million.

An article published by the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information provides an incomplete list of those companies which have voluntarily donated their property to the state. The list includes cases of state-founded legal entities of public law donating their properties to the state.

According to Giga Bukia’s statement, 5,634 individuals donated their properties to the state in 2004-2012. However, according to the statistics obtained from the National Agency of State Property, only 605 individuals and legal entities addressed the state to donate their properties voluntarily in this period. Mr Bukia has also mentioned that there was not a single case of the voluntary donation of property to the state in 2012-2014. However, according to the aforementioned statistics, 32 individuals and legal entities donated their properties to the state in this period.