Assessment mission to Georgia

During the period 30 September – 2 October 2009, experts of the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) visited Georgia to carry out a scoping mission with the purpose to assess the country’s current law enforcement capacities for fighting corruption and money laundering as well as for tracing and recovering stolen assets.

Based on the findings of this mission the ICAR is offering technical assistance to Georgia, including a country-specific training programme as well as related IT advisory services which will aim to enhance the country’s capacity to fight corruption and money laundering, and assist in recovering the proceeds of crime.   As part of the scoping mission, the ICAR experts held a number of meetings with representatives of various departments within the Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Chief Prosecutor, as well as the Financial Monitoring Services.

The most important outcome of the visit was the gathering of relevant legislation and information in relation to the functioning of the Georgian criminal system, specifically in terms of financial investigations, money laundering and mutual legal assistance.  This will enable the ICAR to develop a training programme to be conducted in March 2010 to enhance the capacity of Georgia’s key law enforcement agencies in analysing, investigating and prosecuting international bribery cases. Most importantly, the training will assist the authorities of Georgia in enhancing their staff’s ability to handle international requests and to succeed in cooperation with foreign jurisdictions to fight money laundering and repatriate stolen assets. 

The proposed programme will be fully funded by ICAR.