The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has announced it will abolish the Anti-Corruption Bureau set up to meet EU accession criteria, amid worsening ties between Tbilisi and Brussels.

The news follows several reports from Georgian outlets in recent days of the dismissal of the bureau’s head, Razhden Kuprashvili, though these were denied by both Kuprashvili and GD members.

At a briefing on November 17, GD parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili stated that the bureau would cease operations on March 2, 2026, and its functions would be transferred to the State Audit Office, as reported by Interpress.

Papuashvili noted that the dissolution of the anti-corruption body – along with Georgia’s Personal Data Protection Service which will be terminated on the same date – aims to “optimise state resources” and “strengthen the constitutional framework of the governance system”.

The speaker highlighted how fighting corruption remains among the GD government’s “top priorities”.

“Today, the Anti-Corruption bureau is essentially tasked with collecting and monitoring declarations of officials, parties, and non-governmental organizations,” Papuashvili continued, stating that these functions are “better aligned” with the State Audit Office, as a “higher and more independent constitutional body”.

Papuashvili further suggested that scrapping the bureau was a “step towards returning to the systemic arrangement to the constitutional framework’, which had been ‘dictated to us from the outside”.

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, meanwhile, described the body as “externally imposed” and only “supposedly independent”, as cited by Georgia Today.

The bureau was established in November 2022 on the recommendation of the European Union in line with requirements to achieve candidacy to join the bloc, which Georgia was granted in December of the following year.

It was formed on the basis of legislative amendments to Georgia’s law On Combating Corruption as part of a wider package of reforms mandated by the European Commission.

Since its creation, GD critics have raised concerns that the bureau has become a tool of state repression and persecution used to target dissenting civil society groups and independent media outlets.

Following the news of the bureau’s dissolution, Irakli Kupradze, of the Strong Georgia-Lelo opposition bloc, stated that the body “become so marginalised under GD that its abolition became inevitable”.

“Razhden Kuprashvili, who served only and exclusively the interests of [GD’s billionaire founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili has not investigated a single significant corruption scheme or case involving the most corrupt government in Georgia’s history for all these years. It was a ‘toy office’ for party workers that served the interests of Ivanishvili,” Kupradze continued, as cited by Interpress.

At the November 17 briefing Papuashvili further noted the Business Ombudsman’s Office would be absorbed into Georgia’s Ministry of Economy on 1 January 2026, with the aim to “ensure a faster response to business needs and better coordination at the political level”.

Papuashvili concluded that, overall, these changes would optimise state resources “by approximately GEL20mn [$7.3mn] annually — simplify structural functions, ensure clearer responsibilities, and improve management efficiency”.