Not only Georgia is facing problems related to grants, European institutions are also talking about this - we have been contacted by a very important European institution and we are cooperating with it to identify corruption facts related to the spending of grants, - the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Razhden Kuprashvili, told journalists.

As for the UK grants, Kuprashvili says that the British can spend the funds for bona fide purposes.

“There are problems related to grants not only in Georgia. Today, authoritative European institutions are already talking about corruption facts related to grants. We have already been contacted by a very important European institution for cooperation and we are cooperating with it so that together we can identify corruption facts related to the spending of grants. As for the British, they can spend money for good purposes. No one refusesthat,” Kuprashvili said.

He also answered the question of why the British Embassy was refused to issue grants, to which Kuprashvili said that issuing grants is the prerogative of the Georgian government.

Kuprashvili says that the British Ambassador met with him personally and provided him with information on legislative regulations.

"We did not refuse the British Embassy to provide grants. The British Ambassador met with me personally. We talked about legislative regulations. We clarified all regulations. It should also be noted that the education direction, humanitarian aid, economic directions are completely exempt from the FARA obligation. As for the part of the grant spending itself - this is not the discretion of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. This is decided by the government. They must obtain permission from the government regarding the part of the grant spending. We are responsible for its control over how correctly and purposefully the said funds are spent. I could neither say yes nor no. This is the discretion of the government.

I did not say that the British Embassy is spending money dishonestly. I do not have the right to do so. After the completion of the examination, if it turns out that the British money is also being used dishonestly, for secret activities and serving politics, of course, appropriate decisions will be made. It does not matter to me which country it is, I will definitely cooperate with the institutions of that country to ensure that information is provided,” Kuprashvili said.

In addition, the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau noted that there have been many cases when political activities were financed with grants, although he did not specify which country’s embassy he had in mind in this regard.

“There have been many cases when goals were written on a piece of paper regarding grants, where the funds were to be spent, however, these funds were used to finance various political activities. I will not specify the embassy,” Kuprashvili said.