1500 Employees of Omega Group Address Bidzina Ivanishvili
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, March 15
Ivanishvili is a billionaire and the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, but he is often referred to as the “informal governor” of the whole country.
Omega Group employees expressed hope that the schedule proposed by Omega to cover its debt to the state budget will be acceptable for the government and the factory will resume working.
According to the statement, Omega Group has paid more than GEL 1.5 billion in the state budget over the past few months, adding due to the suspension of operation of the factory during a few months, the country lost more than GEL 12 million.
The workers added that Omega was successfully reimbursed in 2004 for 5 years as a result of the reorganization, the company paid to the budget more than 700 million GEL.
“We, simple people have been working here for 30 years. We are proud that our company Omega Group has paid more than 1.5 billion GEL in the budget, and when it resumed working in November-December 2018, we again paid GEL 6 million to the budget. Now that the factory has been suspended in January, February, and March, the state lost GEL 2012 income for that,” the statement says.
The employees say that their founder Zaza Okuashvili “exposed evidence of corruption and racket” towards his business, adding it is the government that does not let them continue working.
“We, Omega Group staff, still do not believe that we will get the right of labor, enshrined in the Georgian Constitution, in our factory and the company which has been successful in its existence for 30 years. We hope we will not become victims of illegal revenge of the government,” the statement reads.
In March 2018, the Revenue Service (RS) appealed to Tbilisi City Court to obtain a permit for the sale of seized property of OGT as it had accumulated unpaid GEL 51 million tax to the state budget.
In June, the Tbilisi City Court satisfied the request of the Revenue Service, which was appealed by the company. On the decision of the Appeals Court on 25 July 2018, the company's complaint was not satisfied and the Revenue Service was granted permission to sell the sequestered property of Omega Group., in case the company did not cover the debt.
The Revenue Service says Omega Group paid 1 million GEL on October 26, 2018, and asked for a renewal of production to "maintain jobs and continue production” so the company was granted such rights.
The factory resumed functioning and worked until January when its work was again suspended for not fulfilling the obligations undertaken under the new schedule.
Omega and its founder Zaza Okuashvili says that under the Georgian Dream leadership its cigarette company OGT suffered $100 million in losses after multinational company British American Tobacco violated the laws on competition and tobacco control with the help of the Georgian Dream government members.
The corporation says that they had to take loans from banks to cover their necessary expenses to the staff and the state budget but they failed to do so.