Presidential Administration presents six candidates for National Bank Council
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Friday, January 29
Six candidates have been selected to be potential members of the National Bank Council (NBG) by the Presidential Administration.
The deadline to present suitable candidates expired on January 27. The process lasted several days. Experts and members of the NGO sector participated along with government members. According to the head of Presidential Administration, Giorgi Abashishvili, the process of candidates’ selection is over.
The candidates on the post are: Giorgi Pailodze, Archil Iakobashvili, Giorgi Bakradze, Temo Cheishvili, Maia Melikidze and Koba Gvenetadze.
Abashvshvili said that the Administration has sent the list to an experts’ panel. They will consider the candidacies based on professional education, experience and political impartiality.
“After the experts’ discussion, I will communicate with the candidates themselves. Then the candidates’ list and experts’ assessments will be presented to the President in order for the final decision to be made,’’ Abashishvili said.
The procedures for approving the NBG Council candidates will be completed by the end of February. President Giorgi Margvelashvili will choose one candidate from the list, for the position of the NBG’s head. After that, the President will send the candidacy to Parliament for final approval.
Member of the Parliamentary majority Zurab Tkhemalaze stated that the selected candidate will be evaluated by Parliament and only after that will the MPs will decide to support the candidacy or not.
According to the Deputy Chair of Finance-Budget Committee, Nodar Ebanoidze, most of the candidates are not well-known and this criteria should have been considered during the selection process.
“I believe that the candidates should be well-known. Professionalism and reliability are necessary as well. I do not know most of the candidates and I had the same remarks towards the previous Council members too,” noted Ebanoidze.
It should be noted that since 2009, the post of the Chairman of the NBG council was occupied by Giorgi Kadagidze, whose term expires on February 26.
