MPs of City Council request abolishment of Tbilisi Development Fund
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, January 27
Tbilisi City Council independent MP Aleko Elisashvili and member of the Republicans Khatuna Samnidze call on the Mayor, Davit Narmania, to abolish the Tbilisi Development Fund.
The MPs have already sent their request to the Mayor, saying the Development Fund’s work is not transparent and it fails to fulfill its obligations.
Elisashvili and Samnidze held a joint briefing on Thursday. They presented the documentation provided by the Tbilisi Development Fund in November 2016, which reads that the fund has undertaken obligations that require 281 million Gel.
“It turns out that the work of the fund, which has to reconstruct and restore the old districts of the capital, is not transparent. Moreover, it is unclear how the fund has attracted so much money,” said Khatuna Samnidze.
Furthermore, she added that among the 58-member staff of the development fund, only one person is an architect, and there are no historians, architects architect-restorers or art critics among the fund’s employees.
“We, the Republicans and Aleko Elisashvili, request the abolition of this fund. At the very least, the fund should improve its personnel policy and concentrate on the historical part of Tbilisi," said Samnidze.
Aleko Elisashvili believes the Development Fund is a structure of nepotism and misspending. He said that the fund is useless, and the Tbilisi Municipal Improvements Service can fulfill its functions.
“The Development Fund is a structure of misspending and suspicious deals,” he stressed.
Elisashvili called on the Mayor either abolish the fund or take care of old Tbilisi properly himself.
The Tbilisi Development Fund was established in 2010. Its main functions are allegedly the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the historical parts of Tbilisi, drafting the Tbilisi Development Strategy, attracting investments for Tbilisi’s development, and the implementation of various new projects.
