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Subscription The News in Brief Tuesday, November 11, 2025 Prepared by Messenger Staff Government Administration Gains Authority to Request Tax Secrets and Sensitive Personal Data New legislative amendments have granted the Government Administration the authority to directly request and access highly confidential information from authorized state bodies. The new powers significantly expand the Administration's access to citizens' financial and private records, covering both data classified as tax secrets and a wide range of personal data, including highly sensitive special categories of data. The amendments establish a mechanism allowing the executive branch's central administration to centralize the acquisition of confidential state-held records. This change enables the Administration to request data that has been legally protected under specific secrecy regimes, such as information concerning an individual's tax history and financial standing. The scope of the accessed information extends to personal data, defined under existing law to include various types of private details, as well as "special categories of data." This special designation typically covers the most sensitive personal attributes, such as information related to an individual's health, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, ethnic origin, or sexual life. Former Roads Official Arrested, Foreign Contractors Charged Over 2023 Bridge Collapse Georgian prosecutors have arrested a former senior official from the Infrastructure Ministry's Roads Department and filed charges in absentia against three managers of an Azerbaijani construction company and an international expert. The charges are connected to an alleged corruption scheme that resulted in the collapse of a new bridge on the Samtredia-Grigoleti highway in February 2023. Investigators determined that the structure, which the Roads Department initially blamed on flooding, was built with poor-quality materials and failed to meet project specifications. The Prosecutor's Office Department for Combating Corruption Crimes asserts that the collapse and subsequent restoration caused over GEL 16 million in total damage to the state budget. According to prosecutors, the Roads Department contracted the Azerbaijani company Akkord in 2018, while a consortium of international companies was hired for supervision. Despite the supervision never being properly carried out, the former Deputy Head of the Roads Department, Levan Kupatashvili, allegedly signed falsified work completion acts. These actions facilitated the fraudulent appropriation of GEL 3.86 million by the construction company through unperformed work, and the payment of GEL 1.17 million to the absent international expert. Subsequent restoration efforts cost an additional GEL 12 million. Kupatashvili has been arrested and charged with embezzlement and abuse of official authority, offenses that carry a sentence of up to 11 years imprisonment. The Akkord construction managers and the supervising engineer have been charged in absentia with fraud and forgery. Copyright © 2007 The Messenger. All rights reserved. Please read our before using any of the published materials.
