Saakashvili accuses Prime Minister over local self governments
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, December 28
President Mikheil Saakashvili stated that local governments in various regions are under serious pressure and attack from Georgian Dream activists, coordinated by both the government and personally by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Saakashvili directly accused Ivanishvili of creating an unstable situation in the local self governments to his advantage.
The president made the statements concerning the local self governments during the meeting of two local governors on December 27.
The president received the head of the Martvili municipality, Mamuka Danelia, and chairman of the Martvili local council (Sakrebulo), Zaal Gorozia, at the presidential palace.
“The situation concerning local governments is completely abnormal, the Georgian government is displaying instability and signs of chaos,” Saakashvili suggested.
According to him if the situation does not change it will eventually lead Georgia into provincial dictatorship and trigger chaos and unrest.
“It will turn Georgia back 10-15 years,” Saakashvili said, but added that the Parliament chair’s statement concerning the issue was positive.
“If Usupashvili is serious about his intentions to stop this illegality, we are ready to be his partners in this path,” Saakashvili said.
According to Parliamentary Chairman Usupashvili, Parliament might take legal initiative concerning the self government bodies.
“Parliament might elaborate a special mechanism so that neither the government nor the opposition could carry out pressure on local governments,” Usupashvili said, adding that the mechanism does not mean that the former governors who had committed crimes will not be punished.
The Prime Minister Ivanishvili has stated several times that the local governments should be strengthened and they should be less dependent on the central government.
Majority MP, Eka Beselia, stated that the former government and local governors are troubled with the fact that the new state administration launched investigations concerned with various financial issues of the local self government bodies.
“Now the governors will have to answer questions regarding how the budgetary funds have been spent. Lots of illegalities have been detected and the former officials are not really happy about this,” Beselia said.
According to analyst Kakha Gogolashvili, what is of ongoing concern in local self government bodies are “mini revolutions”, and their negative impact for the country. The analyst believes that the issue should be urgently regulated.
