Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697751655332.pdf (Georgia)
Annual Report 2021 Investigative Journalists’ Team iFact Email: info@ifact.ge Website: www.ifact.ge Tel: +995555289039 4A Chovelidze Street, Tbilisi 2 CONTENTS Welcome!
____________________________________________________ 3 Main Developments of 2021 ________________________________________________ 4 Transparency and Democratic Development____________________________________ 5 Environmental Protection __________________________________________________ 6 Cultural Heritage _________________________________________________________ 7 Research on pro-Russian groups and disinformation/propaganda __________________ 8 Elections _______________________________________________________________ 9 Financial report ______________________________________________ 10 iFact Plans for 2022 ___________________________________________ 13 Final Words _________________________________________________ 14 3 Welcome!
I would like to express my gratitude for supporting and rooting for us last year in the Association of Investigative Journalists iFact's work since 2016 with dedication, love, and good faith.

2021 was a year of significant challenges for our team, and we coped with all of it with dignity.

This year, we served our primary mission of creating an informed society.
Our team has maintained a high standard of journalism and ethics throughout the year in preparing multimedia and video investigations, articles, and other visual materials.

This way, we uncovered the ongoing events for the public.

Last year, we accomplished another mission of iFact.

As part of a one-year training course supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, we taught investigative journalism to 10 people.
We consider it a success story on our road to improving the quality of investigative journalism.

We hope 2022 will be a year of beneficial changes and surmounted challenges.

Hoping for your support, we will continue our fight for information transparency and building a democratic, informed, and critical society!
Best wishes, Nino Bakradze Founding Editor of iFact 4 The Main Development of 2021 We started working on this report in Kutaisi in 2021, where our work restored the hope that quality and credible journalism can still bring about change.

Here is a small example that speaks for itself.

The Colchian fountain in the central square of the city has not been renovated for years.

The statues were covered with a white film, and the surface needed renovation.

We made a video about it in the fall of 2021.


City Hall started the works at the end of the year.

These bronze, antique sculptures are currently wrapped in green cloth as the City Hall plans to clean and restore them.

In total, we remember 2021 with important news.

Last year brought lots of success for iFact.


At the beginning of the year, we told you about the shortcomings of Gelati rehabilitation, published a secret agreement between the government and the investor about Namakhvani HPP, told you about the mistakes and shortcomings of the local elections; nepotism, corruption, and dozens of cases of law violation, the reasons behind the tragedies in Shuqruti and Tkibuli and the plight of the people living along the occupation line.
In 2021 we managed to create a social media strategy and our Facebook page.

By the end of the year, iFact had reached half a million Facebook users, and engagement exceeded 100,000 monthly users.

This year was also important in terms of launching our activities in Imereti.

We held dozens of meetings with local government and the public, thus contributing to increased transparency in the region, building an informed society, and developing democratic processes.
In 2022, we plan to take a step forward in terms of organizational development and start operating according to a new fundraising strategy, which will allow us to tell the public even more hidden and important stories.

5 Transparency and Democratic Development One of our main activities is investigating the transparency of state institutions and thus promoting democratic development.

In 2021, our journalists actively worked in this area.
We published more than 50 stories on opaque public procurement, nepotistic deals, and corruption in various municipalities.

For example, we found out that Kharagauli City Hall signed a state procurement contract for the vehicle maintenance service with the mayor's brother directly and without competition.

After the story got published, City Hall started procuring the services through competition and signed a contract with another bidder.
78 Articles 57 Videos 220 Infographics In addition to journalistic activities, such as in-depth investigations, interviews, and publishing materials, the iFact team in Imereti met with locals in the villages and local government officials.

We assisted the public and the government in active communication and discussions of issues.

In 2021, we held about 50 such meetings in the villages of Imereti.
For example, in village Zodi of Chiatura Municipality, a town hall discussion was held over the issue of the damaged water system with the participation of the public and local officials.

After the meeting, the government started the work aimed at repairing the water supply system.

We prepared a video telling a story about how needed a bridge over the Meeting in village Zeda Vani Ogaskura River in Kutaisi was for the locals.
After the publication, the 6 representatives of the City Hall met with the residents of the area and built a bridge.

We have many more such examples in Imereti after 1.5 years of our activity.

Environmental Protection iFact has been working in the field of environmental protection since its foundation.

However, in this regard, 2021 was a special year as the Namakhvani HPP project has been actively discussed.
As a result of extended communication with the Ministry of Economy, iFact obtained the contract concluded between the state and the investor unknown to all before that.

The contract exacerbated the doubts on the project’s usefulness and gave its opponents arguments for compelling criticism.

Publication of the contract was followed by large-scale protest and recognition by the government that this document needed revision and amending.
Afterward, iFact published four more articles reviewing the flaws of the Namakhvani HPP project documents and the details of the transfer of land title to the company.

As a result of our interest in this topic, iFact and The Social Justice Center obtained funding from the Europe Foundation for studying the work, relations, and detailed project data of environmental and oversight agencies.

7 Cultural Heritage At the beginning of 2021, iFact was actively covering the developments around Gelati.
Before March, we published a 5-part investigation revealing several cases of nepotism, negligence, and lack of transparency affecting the process of Gelati rehabilitation.

Our investigations became a good source of information for Georgian media.

All leading television channels were covering this topic using iFact findings as a source.
According to the widespread information, the former head of the Cultural Heritage Agency, Nikoloz Antidze had to be dismissed due to active coverage of the story of unsuccessful rehabilitation of Gelati.

Unfortunately, Gelati still faces big challenges, and its “journey” continues.

We follow the development of this story and plan to cover all the steps made by the Ministry of Culture and the Agency around this case.
In November and December, again, we made the tender documentation concerning Gelati publicly available again indicating corruptive deals and suspicious circumstances.

8 Research on Pro-Russian Groups and Disinformation/Propaganda 2021 was the year of propaganda and activation of the agents of Russian propaganda.

These activities have inflicted considerable harm to Georgian statehood.
The month of July was especially hard for us, journalists, as dozens of our colleagues became victims of physical, verbal, and psychological abuse by a pro-Russian group.

For Lekso Lashkarava, a TV Pirveli cameraman this turned into the last protest action, which he covered.

On July 5, he was beaten to death and died a few days later.

The police did not act and could not protect the physical safety of journalists.
The organizers of the action openly called their supporters for violence and have not been held responsible up today.

On the contrary, in a few months, they were even allowed to establish a political party.

iFact published the list of action organizers and active members.

Our journalists did the job of the investigative authorities of the MIA and managed to identify the persons from published video and photo materials.
We have also published the list of those clerics who actively supported the Russian group Alt-info and helped to mobilize the people for the action.

In addition to the news related to the July rally, iFact has been researching the connections, businesses, and activities of the Primakov Foundation, Levan Vasadze, and Konstantine Morgoshia for a whole year.

The latter persons are in charge of the most active pro-Russian force in Georgia.

Please follow this link for the materials published by iFact on them.
9 Elections 2021 was also marked by the local self-government elections.

The elections were particularly significant due to the lengthy negotiation process mediated by the EU representatives between the opposition parties and the ruling political force.

In addition, last year, the CEC recorded the vote-counting process for the first time and made the video files public.
After the first round of elections, iFact recounted the precinct protocols of the City Council proportional elections and found that 26 percent of them were unbalanced.

Over the next few days, we actively shared the violations found in the precinct protocols and published about twenty posts on the topic.

Georgian media actively covered our findings and referred to our research.
After the CEC published the video recordings of the vote- counting process in partnership with the project Unions, we studied the material with the financial support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation.

In total, we watched the recordings of more than 50 precincts, each of them 5-10 hours long.

We identified systemic problems in the vote-counting process, deficiencies in video recording, and published the information through our platforms and other media outlets.
Based on a study published after reviewing the videos, the non-governmental sector offered recommendations to the CEC management on amending the shortcomings for the second round.

The CEC considered some of the recommendations.

Thus, vote-counting video recordings for the second round were of better quality and ensured the transparency of the process.
Financial Report FUNDING AND PROJECTS IN 2021 Donors Project Period Status 10 Project TOTAL Amount (USD) National Endowment for Democracy Open Society Georgia Foundation Open Society Georgia Foundation Open Society Georgia Foundation Journalism Development Network Researching Authoritarian Influence and Illiberal Movements 2020- 2022 Ongoing 100,121.00 Journalistic Investigation of Pandemic- related Violations 2021 Closed 14,270.00 Analysis of 2021 Election Video Recordings 2021, October Closed 7,000.00 A Study of Groups With Anti-liberal Attitudes COVID-19 Pandemic-driven Investigations 2020- 2021 2021- 2022 Closed 36,000.00 Ongoing 15,000.00 Embassy of the Netherlands Support Democratic Values and Freedom of Information in Imereti Region 2020- 2022 Ongoing 57,600.00 Independent Journalists Team ONLINE JOURNALISM, IN-DEPTH: A Transnational Media Network and Three Topic Platforms for Resilient Independent Online Journalism in the Countries of the EAP 2021 Closed 8,489.32 238,480.32 11 12 COMBINED FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DEC, 2021 (USD) SUPPORT AND REVENUE Grants Donations Service Contracts TOTAL SUPPORT AND REVENUE EXPENSES Personnel Salaries (net) - development program activities Contractual Services (net) - supporting services, development program activities, fundraising spent Taxes and allowances (salary tax, pension contribution) Office Maintenance (office rent, Internet, office supplies) Hosting, Advertising, Online-tools (facebook, google, etc) Printing and Distributing Newspapers Documentation Request from PSH Bank Fees TOTAL EXPENSES EXCESS (DEFICIENCY) NET Balance, Beginning of the year* NET Balance, End of the year 105,542.94 1,147.88 2,244.60 108,935.42 72,614.91 38,529.57 33,406.56 5,838.95 3,277.63 2,863.89 278.59 338.2 157,148.30 (48,212.88) 66,457.9 18,245.02 *66 455.53 USD remaining balance by 31.12.2020 for 2021 activities: 64 639.90 USD from Grants, 1 815.63 USD from donations.
13 iFact Plans for 2022 This year we plan to expand our activities and bring our media product to an even larger audience.

We want to publish important news about powerful institutions in the country, the state budget spending and allocations, cases involving abuse of the law, and signs of corruption.

In 2022, in addition to journalistic activities, we will have the opportunity to share our experience with young journalists interested in the investigative path.
This year as well, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the German government, iFact plans to run a one-year, practice-based training course.

The course participants will do the theoretical modules in research, interviewing techniques, writing, and video production.

Then, they will use this knowledge in practice.

Practical modules include fieldwork in regions of Georgia where media are either non-existent or weak.
We will publish the materials made by the students during the fieldwork on our website.

This year we also plan on improving and developing the organizational structure to help us work more effectively.

This year, depending on our financial situation, we want to expand our activities to the regions of Georgia and tell you more stories there.

Again our particular target is the Imereti region.

We will continue to find big, significant stories, confirm them and provide you with verified information.
Considering the current state of affairs in the country this will be a difficult year.

Again, we have to work hard, have strong nerves and big patience to carry out our professional duties honestly.

However, we believe in the loyalty of our supporters and hope for their support as we look forward to the challenges of 2022!

14 Final Words Glad you read this report to the last page.

It means we are doing something significant for you.

We believe 2022 provides us with many chances to continue our work.
We intend to take them all and spare no effort to bring you hidden, significant, and problematic stories.

All we need is to have your attention.

All we ask for is to show interest in our publications, share them, let others know about iFact, provide information to us, or support us financially, physically, or morally.

We hope for a better year and better news for the country and society.

Best wishes!