Tuesday, August 7, 2007, #149 (1416)

Town officials in Kakheti are latest to go down on corruption charges

By Ana Kvrivishvili

Kutaisi City Hall employees can talk
to Lagodekhi officials about what went wrong

On August 2, the Financial Police of Kakheti province arrested ten Lagodekhi municipality officials on charges of embezzling the town's money.

The head of the Kakheti Financial Police, Giorgi Koghoshvili, reported that the officials are accused of misappropriating money for a tender they oversaw.

GEL 90 000 from the municipality's budget was allocated for cleaning the Lagodekhi Gorge. Financial statement showed between GEL 25 000 and GEL 30 000 spent on the maintenance works. The remaining money was not accounted for, according to the Financial Police.

"These people were detained by the Financial Police of Kakheti province for abuse of power and embezzling GEL 60 000 from the local budget," Koghoshvili told Radio Hereti, a regional radio station based in Lagodekhi.

But the MP representing Lagodekhi, Guram Kakalashvili, thinks the charges are groundless.

"It's impossible to waste so much money. It is a huge amount for Lagodekhi, and the municipal employees wouldn't have been able to misappropriate it. In my opinion, it was just an accounting mistake and nothing more," Kakalashvili told the Messenger.

He said that all the cleaning work for the gorge was carried out, but mistakes in the bills meant that legal costs were not listed.

"I think that at most they'll be found guilty of negligence…the arrested people are not guilty of the crime of which they're accused," Kakalashvili added.

The arrests came after a thorough auditing of Lagodekhi municipality by the Financial Police.
Lagodekhi deputy head Giorgi Ghviniashvili, head of the Lagodekhi Department of Economic Development Gocha Kharalashvili and deputy director of Mekanizatsia Ltd. Giorgi Siboshvili were all sentenced to two months pre-trial detention.

Reportedly, Giorgi Ghviniashvili and Gocha Kharalashvili are facing six to twelve years' imprisonment.

The other arrested town officials were released on bail. Women paid GEL 3 000 each, while men paid GEL 15 000.

The head of Lagodekhi municipality, Tamaz Godziashvili, was questioned but not charged in the investigation.

The arrests in Lagodekhi come as part of a summer sweep of corrupt town halls.

On July 2, officials from the city of Kutaisi were arrested by Interior Ministry officers on similar charges.

Kutaisi vice mayor Omar Kikvadze, a member of the city assembly, and more than 20 other officials were accused of making corrupt deals, misappropriating funds and improperly conducting tenders.

With tapped phone conversations as evidence, the Interior Ministry announced the embezzlement of GEL 600 000 from the Kutaisi city budget.



© The Messenger. All rights reserved. Please read our disclaimer before using any of the published materials.