Throughout the last three years, the Parliamentary Opposition has motioned multiple times for the establishment of Temporary Investigative Commissions for several much-publicised issues. The majority of the Parliamentary Minority’s pleas have not been approved by the Parliament of Georgia (according to FactCheck

’s information, there was only one case when a Temporary Investigative Commission was established) and proposals to create Temporary Investigative Commissions for the investigation of specific cases were rejected.

FactCheck

studied the cases of the establishment of Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commissions throughout the history of independent Georgia upon the request of a reader.

FactCheck

addressed the Parliament of Georgia with an official letter to request a list of proposals submitted to them with the demand for establishing Temporary Investigative Commissions from 1992 until today. The reply we received from the Parliament of Georgia encompasses data for the years 1992-2015 and includes information about 34 Temporary Investigative Commissions. The letter explains that the Parliament of Georgia’s documentation materials for the years 1992 to 2004 have been transferred to the National Archives of Georgia. Therefore, the materials stored in the Parliament of Georgia are incomplete.

In the period of 1996-2003, the Parliament of Georgia considered a total of nine proposals demanding the establishing of Temporary Investigative Commissions. The proposals concerned the following:

• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission on the fight against corruption
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate the statement of Davit Zeikidze, MP
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate the anti-constitutional activities of some law enforcement officials
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate allegations against Rostom Dolidze, MP
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission on Georgia’s naval and maritime affairs
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate the legality of activities of some officials
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to study the crisis situation in the sphere of energy in Georgia
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission on the fight against corruption
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate causes of electoral violations

Of these, the Parliament of Georgia accepted four proposals and the respective Temporary Investigative Commissions were established. The information about the decision of the Parliament of Georgia in regard to the remaining five proposals was not given in the reply letter which FactCheck

received.

In the period of 2004-2012, the Parliament of Georgia considered 11 proposals with the demand for establishing Temporary Investigative Commissions. Of these, the Parliament of Georgia’s decisions concerning three of them were not included in the letter we received whilst two of them were left without final decisions. The Parliament of Georgia approved the establishment of Temporary Investigative Commissions for the six following cases:

• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate the murders of Sandro Girgvliani and Amiran Robakidze
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate budgetary spending by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia
• Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission established upon the request of the Strong Georgia parliamentary faction
• The expediency to establish a Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate and verify much-publicised crimes committed by certain law enforcement agency employees
• The expediency to establish a Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate the facts of crackdown on protest rallies in November 2007 and on 26 May 2011
• The expediency to establish a Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commission to investigate and adequately react to the facts of corruption committed by the President of Georgia, his family members and high-ranking officials of the Government of Georgia

In the period of 2013-2015, the Parliament of Georgia considered 14 proposals with the demand for establishing Temporary Investigative Commissions. Of these, the Parliament of Georgia did not approve the establishment of Temporary Investigative Commissions for the following cases:

• The death of Shalva Tatukhashvili under unclear circumstances
• Study of incidents of the circulation of illegally obtained photographs and videos disclosing details of the private lives of individuals and the illegal telephone tapping of politicians and other public figures
• The death of Barbare Rapaliantsi under unclear circumstances
• Study of the activities of respective officials of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia carried out in regard to the Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani mine (including the revocation of the cultural heritage status of Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani and the RMG company’s conduct of mining work on the territory of the mine). This proposal was pushed forward three times.
• Study of facts concerning the much-publicised murders of Yuri Vazagashvili, Barbare Rapaliantsi, ShalvaTatukhashvili, Erasti Kitsmarishvili and Archil Maisuradze
• Establishment of a Temporary Investigative Commission to study the country’s systemic corruption

In the period of 2013-2015, the Parliament of Georgia voted for the establishment of a Temporary Investigative Commission to look into the activities of the Georgian National Communications Commission. No decision, however, was made concerning the following five cases:

• Investigation of the identification of the origins and producers of a video recording containing jihadi threats
• Public statement of the former Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, in regard to concrete facts of pressure on the court
• Public statement of the General Secretary of the United National Movement, Vano Merabishvili, about the facts which took place on 14 December 2013
• Investigation of the assault against Nugzar Tsiklauri, MP, committed on 31 March 2014
• Investigation of the facts concerning the murders of Barbare Rapaliantsi, Erasti Kitsmarishvili and Shalva Tatukhashvili

The research demonstrated that in the period of 1992-2015 (based upon information available to us), the Parliament of Georgia considered 34 requests to establish Temporary Investigative Commissions. Of these, the Parliament of Georgia decided to establish only five. In 14 cases, the Parliament of Georgia made a decision to reject the requests for the establishment of Temporary Investigative Commissions and did not make a decision concerning seven cases. The document received from the Parliament of Georgia contains no information about the decisions made in regard to the remaining eight proposals submitted to them.

As we have previously mentioned, the fact that the Parliament of Georgia’s materials, including those for 2004, have been transferred to the National Archives of Georgia renders the data incomplete. However, our research nonetheless reflects the unfortunate trend that Temporary Parliamentary Investigative Commissions are established very rarely.