Nepotism of Vano Zardiashvili – How Family Members of Mikheil Chinchaladze Got Employed

Reginfo.ge 

MP Vano Zardiashvili from the Georgian Dream was deputy chief auditor of Georgia in 2013-2016. Soon after Zardiashvili occupied the position, the wife and mother of Mikheil Chinchaladze, who was his close friend and acting deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia, got jobs in the State Audit Office. 

In the 2016 parliamentary elections Vano Zardiashvili became the member of the ninth convocation parliament from the proportional list of the Georgian Dream. 

Media sources several times reported that Vano Zardiashvili had informal influence over the judiciary authority and actively lobbied the judgments to be passed favor of the ruling party in high profile cases. Particular attention was paid to his relations with Mikheil Chinchaladze , who had been deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia since 2007 to 2017. In May 2017 the latter received status life-long judge and was appointed to the position of the Chairman of the Tbilisi Appeal Court. 

Former secretary of the High Council of Justice Levan Murusidze in his interview with journalists confirmed that Zardiashvili and Chinchaladze are close relatives and godfathers.

Network of Information Centers found out that while Vano Zardiashvili worked in the State Audit Office, the family members and close relatives of Mikheil Chinchaladze were appointed to significant positions in the SAO. 

Namely, soon after Zardiashvili occupied the position of the first deputy of the chief auditor, in October 2013, Chinchaladze’s mother, Rusudan Samkharadze because the public relations coordinator at the SAO, where her monthly salary was 2 600 GEL. Before that, Rusudan Samkharadze worked in the private sector – she was chief specialist at the JSC SakRusEnergo. 

SAO is public law legal entity, where the Chief Auditor is authorized to approve the resolution and appoint-fire people on the senior positions. 

In June 2014, Mikheil Chinchaladze’s wife Marika Marikashvili was appointed to the position of the chief consultant in the SAO and her salary was 2 686 GEL. In the moment of hiring in the SAO she was unemployed.

Besides that, from January 15, 2016 the retired father of Mikheil Chinchaladze – Tamaz Chinchaladze, 68, was appointed to the position of the expert-consultant in the Social Service Agency and his monthly salary was 1 665 GEL.

It is noteworthy that wife of Vano Zardiashvili, Tinatin Abralava, has been the head of the department evaluating the professional activities of the judges in the High Council of Justice since January 30, 2015. The main function of this department was to collect information to evaluate the professional activities of the judges, who were appointed to the positions for 3 years term. The department had to report about its findings to the HCOJ.

Tinatin Abralava is daughter of Anzor Abralava, the former MP and member of Aslan Abashidze’s political team in the Union for Revival. He has been working on different positions in the HCOJ since June 1, 2010. 

As it was found out, Tinatin Abralava had business interests too but it was not reflected in any of the financial declarations of MP Vano Zardiashvili. Namely, since 2006 Tinatin Abralava owns 5% of the Ltd Penthouse. 

According to the public registration agency, Ltd Penthouse owns 4 commercial spaces, with total space 550, 6 square meters and 2 auto parking in the constructing complex Olympic Star in Jiuli Shartava Street # 43. 

Lika Klimiashvili, daughter of one of the business partners of Tinatin Abralava Gocha Klimiashvili, has been the head of one of the departments in the Ministry of Labor, Healthcare and Social Welfare since 2015.