Rustavi City Hall paid 110 000 GEL to the former member of the “Modern Talking” Thomas Anders for the concert of one and half hour.
Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli
This year, 210 000 GEL was spent on the celebration of “RsutavKalakoba” (city-anniversary). 160 000 GEL was allocated by the Rustavi budget; additional 50 000 GEL was transferred by the president. Concert of the once very popular European group “Modern Talking” was on the list of the scheduled events during RustavKalakoba; the group fell apart long ago. The concert of the former member of the group Thomas Anders cost 110 000 GEL.
Nobody knows who selected this group for the event. “Nobody asked Rustavi dwellers whether they wished to hear “Modern Talking” on the anniversary,” said the member of the Rustavi city council from the Christian-Democrat Party Aleko Akhvlediani. He said the members of the city council from the National Movement (the ruling party) intended to discuss the issue of “RustavKalakoba” without noise and were not going to say that they intended to invite “Modern Talking” to the celebration.”The scheduled events for the celebration were not written on our agenda. When I asked them to be more specific, they mentioned the name of the group. As for the funds, they said the concert will cost about 20 000 USD. However, I doubt any group will arrive here to give a concert for this sum.”
We interviewed Aleko Akhvlediani before the concert. “Generally, as you know, the money transferred by the president is also spent on “RustavKalakoba”. Despite that, the city budget did not change the allocated sum and we still spend 160 000 GEL from the budget. I simply wonder, why the budget was not generous towards the families of the warriors killed in the war in Abkhazia when we requested allowance of 100 GEL instead 50 GEL for them?!” asked Akhvlediani.
One more thing remained unclear about the RustavKalakoba. The group “Modern Talking”, whose visit in Rustavi was announced in advance, fell apart seven years ago and does not exist now. Initially, the group fell apart in 1987 but then the group members renewed their activities in 1998; they recorded seven albums and finally fell apart in 2003. After the journalists of the video-portal of the Human Rights Center – www.hridc.tv – got interested in the topic and asked several questions to the representatives of the Rustavi City Hall, the local officials changed their position and announced that only one member of the group Thomas Anders was arriving in Georgia.
Nevertheless, the official website of the Rustavi City Hall still reported about the arrival of the “Modern Talking” on September 24.
The city council supported the program of the “RustavKalakoba – 2010” on September 22. Within the program, various cultural, sport and entertainment activities were scheduled: concert of the group “Erisioni”; concerts of various folk, choreographic and orchestra bands, performances, exhibitions, movement theatre, awareness-raising activities and beer festival. The event was to finish on October 9 with fireworks and gala-concert. “On this day, famous German groups “Modern Talking” will sing for Rustavi residents,” it is announced on the official website of the Rustavi City Hall (http://www.rustavi.ge/geo/?cat=news&level=level2&res_id=512
After they finally clarified who was arriving in Rustavi to congratulate the anniversary, a new problem originated. The Rustavi City Hall announced a suspiciously low price for the concert of the former singer of the “Modern Talking.” “The City budget will pay 35 000 GEL to Anders,” stated the spokesperson of the Rustavi City Hall Salome Girkelidze.
In order to check the information, on October 6, the Human Rights Center sent official letter to the Rustavi Mayor and requested expenditure list of all events scheduled for the celebration of the city anniversary and copy of the contract with singer Thomas Anders. Our request was satisfied and we learned that the Rustavi City Hall paid 110 000 GEL to Thomas Anders instead 35 000 GEL including the 50 000 GEL transferred by the president of Georgia. The City Council had signed a contract with the director of the “Bamba Batumi Ltd” Giorgi Bochorishvili to invite Anders to the city.
The concert of the former singer of the “Modern Talking” lasted only one and half hour at the “RustavKalakoba”.
News
December 13, 2023
Ethnic minorities outside the peace dialogue
November 6, 2023
‘Peace’ agenda of political parties
Popular
Articles
February 13, 2024
Why are Ossetians affected by the conflict unable to regain Georgian citizenship and their property?
