Legal Violations During Liquidation of Presidential Representatives’ Funds

Legal Violations During Liquidation of Presidential Representatives’ Funds

The Young Lawyers Association recently published information about legal violations associated with the Presidential Representatives’ Fund. This time, the Monitoring Commission spoke about violations that took place during the liquidation of these funds.

According to Articles 37, 38 and 40 of the Administrative Code of Georgia, public information must be released immediately. In cases where information needs to be prepared, this must be done within 10 days. No one has the right to block or withhold public information. If someone attempts to do this they will be held criminally responsible.

Disputes surrounding funds started a year ago, when Mikheil Kareli, the Presidential Representative of Shida Kartli, refused to provide the Young Lawyers Association and journalists with public information they had requested. The Young Lawyers Association then sued Kareli for violating the law. Although the organization won two court cases, the detailed documentation they required has still not been sent to them.

On January 1st 2006, the liquidation of the Presidential Representatives’ Funds began and took 3 months to complete. The committees responsible for liquidating the funds were created in accordance with the common law on legal entity. According to Article 18, if any money remains in the funds, it must first be used to pay any debts if they exist, if not, the remaining sum must be transferred into the state budget.

The Presidential Representatives in the Kakheti region violated the above law.
Instead of transferring the money back to the government, they transferred the remaining funds to a Private Fund. Nika Ireshidze, a representative of the Young Lawyers Association spoke about this issue in detail.

“The Fund of the Presidential Representative in the Kakheti region did not have any debts. On the contrary, it had about 90 thousand laris in credit and a vehicle (a jeep) worth an estimated 15 thousand laris - all of which should have been transferred to the state budget. However, in accordance with a decision by the Liquidating Committee, the sum was transferred to a legal entity under the common law – the ‘Kakheti Development Agency’. Thus, the law has been violated. According to Article 360 of the Criminal Code, this kind of act is willfully illegal and the law must be enforced”, says Ireshidze.

The citation from Article 360 of the Criminal Code is as follows: “A willful act that causes damage must be punished either with a fine; 180-200 hours of community service; some type of restitution to the victim, being carried out for 1-2 years, or detention for 4 to 6 months.”

The Young Lawyers Association did not manage to get any information about the Fund of the Presidential Representative in the Imereti region. Nika Ireshidze told the Human Rights information and Documentation Centre that this is a violation of the Administrative Code. According to Ireshidze, the Administration of the Presidential Representative avoided making this public information available. “We requested the conclusions of the Liquidating Committee on March 27th; however all the norms of legislation were then violated because we have yet to receive any information”. The Young Lawyers Association believes that the Administration of the Presidential Representative is hiding information in order to conceal serious violations which have occurred there.

“One of the reasons they did not provide us with the required information is the violations that have happened there. On January 16th, we made a presentation regarding the results of our monitoring of the Funds’ activities. We covered the situation within the Fund in Imereti, where there were mostly violations concerning state tenders. The Executive Director of the Fund, George Balanchivadze, told me that we were not able to do anything about Mikheil Kareli (who also hid public information) and we would not be able to do anything to them either”, says Ireshidze.

On May 1st, representatives of the Young Lawyers Association plan to hold a meeting with the Presidential Representatives. If they do not take into consideration the advice the organization gives them, they will have to deal with the Prosecutor’s Office. Nika Ireshidze stated that at first the Presidential Representatives will be given a recommendation to act in accordance with the law. “After this, if Kareli refuses to give us public information, he will be charged for it. What’s more, Article 381 of the Criminal Code says that a person who refuses to carry out their sentence must be detained for approximately 2 years”.

Eka Gulua