Draft-Law on Local Self-Government Presented to Gori Society

Lado Bichashvili, Shida Kartli

The draft-law initiated by the Government of Georgia, according to which towns with more than 15 000 population will receive status of self-governing town, was publicly discussed in Gori. If the bill is passed, Gori will receive the status and will elect the mayor. Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Tengiz Shegilashvili and head of the Unit for the Relationship with the Regions and Self-Governments Irakli Melashvili presented the bill to the Gori society in the hall of the Gori University. According to the project, town and village budgets will be separated as well as self-government bodies. 

Deputy Minister Tengiz Shegilashvili: “It is multisided reform and its one of the most significant components is that some towns will restore their status of self-governance and have its municipal board (Sakrebulo), elected mayor, have budget and be focused on the local problems and town development; population shall have real chance of involvement. The main issue is to have the mayor and Sakrebulo, who will be accountable to their voters not to the central authority.”

Irakli Melashvili: “Gori does not have budget. The town cannot be developed without budget; its administration will not be able to fund future activities, investment and will not be able to create working places and develop local infrastructure. Everything is settled in Tbilisi, in the ministries. Unless we change this reality and allow towns, villages to independently make decision, the regions will always be retarded.” 

Local journalists had questions regarding the bill on self-governance law. Thea Giguashvili requested more detailed discussion of the issue and added that some more significant problems remain unattended when we focus only on the status; those problems are decentralization of the government and leverage of the central government to interfere in the competence of the self-governments. 

“Unless ministries restrict their authorities and those powers are not assigned to local self-governments, nothing will be changed even if we elect the Mayor,” Journalist said.

At the bill presentation, Gori district majoritarian MP Soso Vakhtangishvili also made speech. He expressed readiness to continue participation in public discussions and noted that proposed draft-law is better than the acting one. “If we allow population to elect president, MPs, why should not villagers elect their governors and town residents - district governors and mayors?” MP Vakhtangashvili said.

In parallel to public presentations of the draft law, soon the parliament will also start its discussion.