In Tbilisi, corruption is the talk of the town. Last year, Shevardnadze asked a group of seven experts to draw up a program to help stem the spread of corruption. Among the two independent analysts included in the group was Ghia Nodia, the chairman of the non-governmental Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development. In an interview with our correspondent, Nodia said the authors of the program singled out six areas that they believed should be given priority in combating corruption. On the contrary, in this country corruption is the norm.
Corruption is the foundation on which public management and economic relations are built.
The 'initiative from below' consisted of saying that the fight against corruption should be based on a whole set of measures and not, say, on show trials against this or that corrupt civil servant. The coordination council is only an advisory body, without executive authority. But the experts who drafted the program nonetheless see it as an essential organ in the fight against corruption Georgian authorities say they are willing to launch. Nodia says that the council should have the power to issue additional recommendations on how to fight corruption. He sees it as a link between state and society, and between the government and international organizations.