Pursuant to the Law of Georgia on Agricultural Cooperatives, the Rural Development Agency is authorized to monitor the agricultural activities of a legal entity with the status of an agricultural cooperative.

The agricultural cooperative is being monitored in accordance with the Resolution #254 of October 2, 2013 of the Government of Georgia "On Approval of the Rules for Obtaining and Terminating the Status of an Agricultural Cooperative" and the requirements / procedures defined by the relevant orders of the Agency.

Monitoring can be both planned and unplanned.

Types of monitoring are: field (directly in the cooperative) and documentary (inquiry of information in written).

The Director of the Agency approves the annual plan (planned) for monitoring the agricultural activities of a legal entity with the status of an agricultural cooperative and issues an individual administrative-legal act on the implementation of monitoring, which should specify:

• Type of monitoring;
• Person implementing the monitoring (position, first name and surname);
• Name of the agricultural cooperative to be monitored;
• Period for monitoring.

The relevant agricultural cooperative must be notified of the planned field monitoring in advance, but not later than one month before the monitoring.

For the purpose of monitoring a legal entity with the status of agricultural cooperatives, the Agency is authorized to:

A) Request and receive the necessary information from agricultural cooperatives on the agricultural activities carried out / to be carried out by them, including the relevant agreements concluded by the agricultural cooperative, delivery-acceptance acts and documents confirming the payment;

B) if necessary, send an authorized person of the Agency to monitor the activities of the agricultural cooperative.

In case there is a reasonable suspicion that the agricultural cooperative violates the requirements established by the Law of Georgia on Agricultural Cooperatives and this Rule, the authorized person of the Agency has the right to carry out unscheduled monitoring by the decision of the Director of the Agency.

During the monitoring, the authorized person of the Agency shall inspect:

• Whether the agricultural cooperative carries out the agricultural activities provided for by the Law of Georgia on Agricultural Cooperatives;
• Whether the agricultural cooperative carries out any activities other than those provided for in sub-paragraph “a” of this paragraph;
• Whether the minimum number established by the legislation of Georgia for the members of an agricultural cooperative are observed;
• Whether the agricultural cooperative goes through liquidation or insolvency proceedings;
• Whether other requirements established by the Law of Georgia on Agricultural Cooperatives and the Charter of Agricultural Cooperatives are observed.

If the monitoring reveals that any of the above requirements have been violated, the Director of the Agency shall, within 5 working days, make a decision on issue the recommendation of the Deficiencies to the Agricultural Cooperative and set a reasonable time limit, but not more than 6 months in total, to rectify the violation.

The status of an agricultural cooperative is terminated if the cooperative:

• Does not submit the required documentation within 3 (three) months specified in the letter after receiving the letter on monitoring;
• In case of identification of the defect (s), does not eliminate the defects within the time / period given for the elimination of the defect (s).