Teimuraz Mekvabidze: “I Still Hope for Restoration of Justice”

Lado Bichashvili, Shida Kartli

Teimuraz Mekvabidze, who has worked for the tax institution for 13 years, was unexpectedly sacked from the office. A week before the dismissal, at the session, the head of Gori Tax Inspection thanked him and gave a bonus for good work. Several weeks later he learned that he was on the list of employees-to-be fired; Levan Tsitelashvili had handed the list to senior officials.

That time Minister of Finance Baindurashvili ordered the head of Revenue Service Giorgi Tskhakaia to reorganize the Gori Tax Service. The decree signed by Baindurashvili states that reorganization, personnel reduction shall take place in the Gori office. “Only the Law on Public Service regulates the process, whose Article 96 Part III puts the head of the institution in charge of reorganization and Giorgi Tskhakaia was held responsible for the process; he had to consider results of qualification tests conducted by the head of Revenue Service and reveal the candidates to be dismissed/reduced; however it did not happen. Head of Gori Tax Inspection Levan Tsamalashvili wrote to the head of Revenue Service and asked to allow him to dismiss the employees in accordance to his own decision,” Teimuraz Mekvabidze said. After the reorganization, the personnel number increased from 11 up to 13 in the enforcement unit of the Tax Inspection; Teimuraz Mekvabidze worked in this particular unit. He believes he was illegally fired and is still waiting for the restoration of justice. Head of Revenue Service Giorgi Tskhakaia relied on the letter of Levan Tsitelashvili when issuing the decree on Mekvabidze’s dismissal.

In March of 2009, Judge Tinatin Shaverdashvili at the Administrative Case Collegium of the Tbilisi City Court did not satisfy Mekvabidze’s lawsuit on restoration him to working place and reimbursement of missed working hours. Mekvabidze appealed the verdict at the Appeal Court on April 26, 2009 and Judge Nana Chichileishvili carried out litigation on the case.

Teimuraz Mekvabidze: “At the Appeal Court, I requested to invite the representative of the Revenue Service who could verify which provision of the law allowed Levan Tsitelashvili to send letter to the Head of Revenue Service and request my dismissal without any reason. When I asked this question to the representative of the RS, he could not answer it. Afterwards, Judge Chichileishvili postponed the trial for one week and instructed him to clarify the reason of my dismissal. However, they could not present the well-grounded argument at the next trial; they just repeated the decree text which did not include the reasons; despite that, Judge Chichileishvili, who started the litigation legally, upheld the City Court judgment a week later. I appealed the verdict at the Supreme Court; Levan Murusidze, currently secretary of the Council of Justice, was chairman of the Supreme Court; Collegium members were judges Maya Vachadze and Paata Silagadze; Supreme Court did not accept the appeal claiming that I could not verify significant procedural violations by the Appeal Court. I lost hope of restoration of justice in this country and started preparation of the application to the Strasbourg Court; however due to financial problems I stopped all litigation at that time.”

As he stated, in 2009-2010 Teimuraz Mekvabidze could not find justice. After the government changed in 2012, he still hopes to find justice and petitioned to the Minister of Finance and Prime-Minister hoping the new government will impartially study his case.

“Since the new government promised population to restore justice in the country, on October 29, 2012 I applied to the Minister of Finance Nodar Khaduri and presented him documents proving illegality of my dismissal. Since his response was late, on January 11, 2013 I petitioned to the Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili and asked to personally control my case. The chancellery of the government forwarded my petition to the Ministry of Finance; on April 23 I met head of the office Davit Shakrashvili; we discussed my problem; I presented him the documents and he agreed that I was illegally dismissed from the Tax Inspection. Shakrashvili promised the senior officials would take up my case and then connect me. However, I did not receive any information from them. So, I decided to repeatedly petition to the PM and noted that nobody had responded my January 16 letter. Finally, Revenue Service wrote to me that there was no court decision on my restoration to the working place and offered me to take part in the competition if it takes place in future; unfortunately it was ironic approach to my problem.”

Nowadays, Levan Tsitelashvili is head of Law Department of the Revenue Service and Teimuraz Mekvabidze’s petitions about his illegal dismissal were forwarded to him. “After the government was changed, I filed a complaint against Levan Tsitelashvili at Shida Kartli and Mtskheta-Mtianeti regional prosecutor’s office where I requested to start investigation into the abuse of professional power by Levan Tsitelashvili and Giorgi Tskhakaia. I hoped the Prosecutor’s Office would start investigation under new government and if new circumstances would be found, my case would have returned to the litigation. Prosecutor’s Office notified me that my case was already discussed by the court and it was put in force. My complaint did not contain new circumstances and they could not start investigation.”

Teimuraz Mekvabidze presented court decisions and official letters from different governmental or law enforcement bodies to the Human Rights Center. He hopes to find justice and urges every human rights organization, Public Defender’s Office and governmental institutions for help.