Tbilisi Mayor doesn’t exclude possibility of candidacy as audit agency head

Current Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania, who was elected to the post in 2014, has confirmed that he may be appointed as the new head of the State Audit Office, the body which provides findings regarding state institutions to Parliament.

Narmania also didn’t deny that the Georgian Dream ruling team may name current Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze as its nominee for Tbilisi Mayor in this year’s local elections.

Narmania joined the Georgian Dream (GD) coalition led by the tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili in 2012 and took part in devising the coalition's pre-election economic program.

After GD's victory in the October 2012 parliamentary election, Narmania assumed the office of Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure.

At that time, the incoming cabinet planned to dissolve the ministry; Narmania's portfolio was considered to be temporary and it was planned to move him to the position of First Deputy Minister of Finances.

However, Narmania served as Minister Regional Development and Infrastructure until his resignation on 14 April 2014, the occasion of his nomination as GD's candidate for Mayor of Tbilisi in the June 2014 local elections.

Before coming to politics, he was mainly engaged with educational activities and making analyses about economic issues.

His activities in infrastructure were positively assessed.

Narmania was Ivanishvili’s pick for the mayoral post, and many thought that he would be a good mayor of the capital city, having taken his knowledge and experience of economics into account,.

It is up to people to decide how good or bad a mayor he was; however, it could be said that there was an impression that he was not entirely free in making decisions.

Appointing Narmania as the new head of the audit agency may trigger questions in the future, as if the body comes across any violations in the Mayor’s Office activities carried out during Narmania's own tenure, he could face an uncomfortable conflict of interest.