Nino Tsilosani: “The Heritage Foundation has ranked Georgia among the best and most progressive countries against bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage and graft.”

Verdict: GeoFacts concludes that Nino Tsilosani’s statement is HALF TRUE.

Analysis

Georgian Dream MP Nino Tsilosani highlighted Georgia’s assessments in the 2024 Index of Economic Freedom report by the Heritage Foundation during the parliamentary sitting on 5 March 2024. “The Heritage Foundation is giving you a basic lesson in assessments. Their aforementioned ranking encompasses factors such as bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage and graft. The Foundation has evaluated Georgia among the best and most progressive countries according to these criteria,” stated the MP whilst addressing the opposition.

GeoFacts evaluated Nino Tsilosani’s statement.

The Heritage Foundation annually evaluates the economic freedom of over 180 countries worldwide in its Index of Economic Freedom report. A total of 184 countries were assessed from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 in the 30^th edition of the report released in 2024.[1]

The organisation’s methodology measures economic freedom based on 12 key variables, grouped into four broad categories. Each of the 12 economic freedoms within these categories is graded on a scale of 0 to 100:

1. Rule of Law (property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness).
2. Government Size (government spending, tax burden, fiscal health).
3. Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labour freedom, monetary freedom), and
4. Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).

Notably, the organisation evaluates the criteria mentioned by the MP [bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage and graft] whilst quantifying the Government Integrity category. The organisation claims that systemic corruption within government institutions undermines economic freedom by employing practices such as bribery, extortion, nepotism, cronyism, patronage, embezzlement and graft.

Graph 1: Government Integrity by Year

Source: Heritage Foundation

Georgia’s Government Integrity score surpasses the world average as per the report. Georgia achieved its highest rating of 65 in 2017; however, the score gradually declined to 58.5 by 2019, resulting in a shift from the Moderately Free to the Mostly Unfree category. The situation changed in 2020 as Georgia remained in the Moderately Free category from 2020 to 2022, albeit with a slight regression. The score decreased even further to 55.5, putting Georgia amongst the Mostly Unfree countries in 2023. However, Georgia’s score improved to 61.1, moving the country back to the Moderately Free category.

Hence, whilst Nino Tsilosani’s statement is partially true as Georgia has received a moderately good assessment in 2024, it omits information regarding the shifts in the index. Particularly, Georgia exhibited continuous progress in the Government Integrity criterion from 2012 to 2017 but its ratings began to decline after 2017. Considering all of the above, GeoFacts concludes that Nino Tsilosani’s statement is HALF TRUE.

[1] Georgia’s total economic freedom score amounts to 68.4, a decrease of 0.3 as compared to the previous year’s rating. The country is ranked 32^nd overall and 19^th in the regional rating which covers 44 countries. Georgia’s economic freedom score exceeds both the worldwide and regional averages according to the report. Georgia’s economic was categorised as ‘moderately free.’