On May 23, 2022, the InstituteforDevelopmentofFreedomof Information (IDFI) summarized the year of 2021 in terms of access to public information and handed over a special award to the Public Defender's Office, which has 100% indicator of access to information.

Transparency is an essential element of democratic accountability for the Public Defender, as an independent constitutional body. Our office issues any information in accordance with law and receives an award from the InstituteforDevelopmentofFreedomof Information every year, which is a great honor.

According to the study conducted by the InstituteforDevelopmentofFreedomof Information, despite the transition to the electronic case management system, which facilitates provision of information and raises standards, the quality of access to public information has been declining in the country every year since 2017. In 2021, the total rate of access to information was only 54%. Against this background, the Public Defender’s Office has maintained the best rates of access to public information over the years and has been duly fulfilling its statutory obligation to provide public information.

It should be noted that the InstituteforDevelopmentofFreedomof Information requested information from 285 institutions across Georgia for the monitoring purposes.