Majoritarian MP Bureau Received Service Car through Procedural Violations

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

One part of the Gori City Council members speaks about the interference in the competences of the council from the side of the mayor and notes that Zurab Jirkvelishvili assigned the service car of the municipal administration to the bureau of the majoritarian MP Ioseb Makrakhidze before the city council discussed the issue at the session.

Member of the City Council from the Georgian Party Ilia Metreveli said the issue of the service car was inserted in the agenda of the January 6 session in order to legalize the illegal decision of the mayor. 

“He assigned the service car to the bureau without consulting the issue with us. The session was held on January 6, where the council members formally voted for the assignment of the car to the MP’s bureau,” Ilia Metreveli told humanrights.ge.

The City Council member Tamar Tedliashvili said the mayor disregards the city council.

“The City Mayor does not respect the council and disregards the opinions of its members. When the issue of the service car was submitted to the city council for consideration, the car was already assigned to the MP bureau,” Tedliashvili said.

The City Mayor Zurab Jirkvelishvili did not respond to the statements of the council members; the lawyer at the City Hall said the statements were absurd.

“I do not confirm the accusations. The council members could not provide the evidence to confirm their allegations. Consequently, I think it is useless to comment on their statements. The car still belongs to the municipal administration,” the lawyer at the Gori City Hall Giorgi Batonisashvili said. 

The coordinator of the majoritarian MP’s local bureau Zurab Kapanadze has different position. He said that based on verbal agreement, the Gori City Hall assigned the service car to the bureau to repair several days before January 6 session. “Now we are repairing the car; at the January 6 session they agreed on assigning the car to our office for 1 year.”

Lawyer of Shida Kartli office of Human Rights Center Aleksi Merebashvili said alongside procedural violations, fact of unreasonable expenditure of local funds was also observed in this situation.

“Until the legal procedures are over and relevant documents are prepared to assign the car to a state body, it is inadmissible to give it to other institution based on verbal agreement; moreover, it is inadmissible to spend any financial resources on it. The car shall be repaired by the entity, which is the official owner of the property. Otherwise, it is unreasonable expenditure of funds,” the lawyer of Human Rights Center said. 

During the January 6 session of the City Council, one voice turned up important to settle the issue of the service car. 6 members were for and 5 against assigning the car to the MP’s bureau.