City Council opposition summons Tbilisi Mayor
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, February 23
City Council (Sakrebulo) opposition MPs call on Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania to present himself at the Sakrebulo meeting and answer questions over an alleged corrupt deal between Appeals Court judge Nata Nazgaidze and the government.
The opposition MPs said that according to the City Council's December 23 2016 decree, the family of Nazgaidze - in particular her brother - was given around 1 million GEL in total from the budget for land that was devastated in the June 13 2015 flood in Tbilisi.
However, the MPs claim that at time, the property was in the Bank of Georgia’s ownership, and only the Nazgaidze family was given such compensation for land without any real estate on it.
The Mayor’s representatives were to arrive at Tbilisi Sakrebulo on Tuesday, where the issue was to be discussed.
However, the Mayor stated later he did not send his people to the City Hall because the opposition was going to “stage a show”.
“We made the decision about the compensation within the law. In case anyone has any suspicions about the case, we sent all the documents to the Prosecutor’s Office, which would start an investigation,” said Narmania.
The following day, the Sakrebulo’s 13 opposition MPs signed a document and sent it to City Hall, asking the Mayor to attend an extraordinary session and answer their questions.
“This is a corrupt scheme and the Mayor’s Office is involved on it, that is why we summoned Narmania to answer the questions,” Independent MP Aleksandre Elisashvili said.
Republican MP Khatuna Samnidze says that the law obliges the Mayor to attend the Sakrebulo if one fifth of MPs demand his presence.
Temur Grigalashvili, a City Council Member of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, says Narmania carries out the instructions of the government.
“But Narmania will have to answer all our questions,” he added.
Judge Nata Nazgaidze says that her brother Zviad received the land and the money as compensation after the June 13 disaster, which flooded Tbilisi and destroyed land owned by Zviad Nazgaidze.
