With the aim of providing a solution to the problem, the Online Asset Declaration System (OADS) was launched on February 1, 2010 by the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) of Georgia. Through this online system public officials are required to fill out their asset declarations on an annual basis, reflecting the position of the assets owned by them and their family members. Within 48 hours following the submission of the asset declaration the CSB tests its validity and consequently it is automatically published on the following web-site: www.declaration.gov.ge.
This public disclosure mechanism enables each citizen to freely search for and download the asset declaration of relevant public official, whose personal finances are interesting to him/her. The introduction of this initiative was met with a considerable interest among the wider public. Moreover, this public disclosure requirement can be considered as one of the most significant elements of the large-scale anti-corruption efforts of the Government of Georgia.
The typical asset declaration contains the following information on the public official and his/her family members: real estate, bank accounts, cash, expansive belongings (jewelry, cars); cash; contracts, expenditures, shares.
Up to now 132,417 declarations have been downloaded from the website. The biggest consumers of this system are NGOs and other civil society organizati0ons, media (investigative journalists) and international organizations as well as ordinary people. For example, Transparency international in Georgia regularly uses this system to measure the level of corruption within the public officials.
At the moment there are 2500 public officials which are obliged to report their asset declarations on the website.
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