Georgia’s new Freedom of Information chapter of the General Administrative Code affects the life of almost every Georgian. For example, the city government of Tbilisi is required to give information, if asked, about the money it spent on new cars for city officials. Since the media will also have access to this information, the local government is likely to be more careful about how it spends the taxpayers’ money.

It used to be very difficult to get in touch with most government officials, or even to learn who they were. Today, if you walk in to the State Chancellery building, you find a list posted with the names of the government officials that work there, their title or position, and their telephone numbers and room numbers. If you are denied information about your pension by the government, there is a set process now that you can follow to have this decision reviewed.

These are not big, exciting changes that get everyone’s attention. But multiply the effect of these examples throughout the country, and at every level of government, and you begin to see how changes in the law can make Georgia a better place to live and work.

Administrative law comprises those rules that affect the way government does its business. With the assistance of USAID and its contractors, Georgia adopted a important new General Administrative Code in 1999. This code included the freedom of information rules, which were the most progressive ever passed in the former Soviet Union and have become a model for other states.

This fall marked the award of a $10.8 million, four- year contract to the IRIS for the USAID Rule of Law project in Georgia. IRIS has been working in Georgia for several years, and was instrumental in the adoption of the administrative law reforms.

"The kind of transparency and accountability that these reforms can provide will not only make the government work better, but make it increasingly difficult for corruption to flourish," Howard Fenton, local director of IRIS’s Georgia project, pointed out.