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Head of Public Broadcasting Is Blamed for Unfair Competition.

March 25, 2009

“Sigma +” Ltd, Author of TV projects “Etaloni” and “Perspektiva”, sued 1st Channel at the court and demands to abolish the results of a competition organized by the board of the channel.

The attorney of the “Sigma +” Ltd Mery Japaridze, lawyer for “Article 42 of the Constitution”, stated that after studying the materials on the competition she found out that 1st Channel breached the Law of Georgia on Purchases, more precisely the resolution on “State Purchases.’

Levan Kubaneishvili, director general of public broadcasting did not have the  right to be chairperson of the competition commission at the public television and to take part in its activities because Company “TBC TV” was taking part in the competition. Levan Kubaneishvili was director and one of the founders of the company before he occupied the position of the director general of the PB. Consequently, there was a conflict of interest and he should have denied participation in the competition.

According to the resolution on “State Purchase” and the Law of Georgia on Purchase, a competition commission member should not be a person who has worked for an organization, in the past three years, that takes part in the competition. Levan Kubaneishvili worked for the company 6 months ago. In this competition Levan Kubaneishvili was chairperson of the commission and the commission decided that the  projects “Etaloni” and “Didi Perspektiva” did not satisfy the demands of the competition and therefore these programs were not selected for Public Broadcasting. However, contracts were signed with such projects of which the budgets were much higher than those of projects that were declined. In addition to that, exclusive contracts were signed without competition that were not to be signed at all. On February 27, 2009 “Sigma +” Ltd brought a lawsuit to the court in order to abolish the results of the competition,” said the lawyer for the Ltd.

Japaridze claimed that the competition should be cancelled because the general director of the public broadcasting was personally interested in the results of the competition. If the lawsuit will be satisfied and the results of the competition are abolished, the winning programs will not be released by Public Broadcasting. If this will be the case, Public Broadcasting will have to organize another competition with another commission.

Source: Medianews

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