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Real financial problems or “a step against UNM”?

By Natalie Osipovi
Friday, December 27
According to the chairman of the Audit Committee of the Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo), Mikheil Kavtaradze, after the study of the activity of the City Council’s Administration, serious financial violations were discovered at the Tbilisi City Hall, which has not presented a detailed report of the expenses. Kavtaradze held a briefing, where he introduced the media to some facts, which were received during the work of the Revision Committee.

He was also supported by the chairman of the “Georgian Dream for democratic Georgia” faction, Zaza Gabunia, whose statement referred to the embezzling of the sums from the budget of Tbilisi. As Gabunia said, the former mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, has wasted significant sums of money on non-governmental needs.

“I want to ask Ugulava, how morally it is, to spend GEL 100,000 on his phone calls from the city budget. We, the members of the City Council had no funds to build houses for the homeless while our Mayor was spending hours speaking on the phone. Due to this information, it has become clear that the law has been violated for charging sums excessive of the prescribed limit.”

In response, the chairman of the Tbilisi City Council faction “National Movement – Reformates”, Temur Grigalashvili, made a refutation, where he named the mentioned action “nothing more, than another step against the United National Movement (UNM)”.

According to Grigalashvili’s statement, the minority faces various difficulties from the central government. “Kavataradze’s so-called ‘fortune telling’ and political slogans are nothing more than a simple composition which has no proofs or evidence. It would be much better for them to work on their pre-election promises. I can trust neither Mr. Gabunia, nor Mr. Kavatardze, till they provide us with the necessary documents,” Grigalashvili said.

In support of Grigalashvili’s speech, the chairman of the faction “National Movement for new Tbilisi”, Tamaz Shoshiashvili, said that after Kavtaradze took a given position, there was no review of the alleged action. “In case some violation exists, the committee should discuss the mentioned actions and only after this discussion, an appropriate decision can be taken. It is known that our chairman is just completing some political order,” Shoshiashvili said supposing that “these unreasonable statements” are nothing more than political PR, which is directed against the City Hall.