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Closed Doors and Broken Bridge in Gori

May 29, 2007

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Non-governmental organizations have been widely discussing the restriction of the freedom of expression in Gori; however, there is no result yet. Representatives of the NGOs said that local authority’s activities hinder their organizations and journalists to work impartially in the region.

We can say that the door of the Gori Administrative Building is closed for ordinary people. The office of issuing the permits works very actively here. Representatives of the NGOs say that the democratic principles were followed much better than now when former members of NGOs came into the office. 

The non-governmental sector petitioned to the representatives of the local authority and asked to meet them to discuss the various problems. They offered the officials to appoint the date and place of the meeting but there has been no reply yet.

Ketevan Bebiashvili, the head of the Young Lawyers Association’s Gori office, said that the local government is completely isolated from the society and nobody gets information about their activities.

“The society does not know how the high-ranking officials, whom they have elected, work. People cannot get into the Administrative Building without any barriers. The local authority has established the bureau for permits according to the document that contradicts the legislation. The resolution of the Gori Municipality Governor has individual character while the situation must be regulated by the normative record drawn up in accordance to the law.

Another stark problem is the publicity of the information. The court made three decisions regarding the violation of legal deadlines of issuing the public information. The court ordered the officials to give away the information. We should not need to speak with the officials through the court. Nobody demands the local authority the information which is not in their competence or is not public,” said Bebiashvili.

Young Lawyers Association won two trials several days ago and the representatives of the Administration were ordered to give them the information. Last month, Salome Vardiashvili, representative of the Public Defender’s Office won the trial on similar issues and the court ordered the Chairman of the Gori Municipality to give away the information and  in addition to that he was bailed for 2 000 lari.

Young Lawyers Association blames the Municipality for breaching the publicity of the meetings and the process of making the decisions. They claim that the announcement on meetings and its agenda are never put up on public places. As for the society’s participation in the decision-making process, it is beyond hope.

Mikheil Chitadze, the head of the Gori News Center, said that the degree of publicity and transparency was higher during the previous government. “If in the past Gori was considered a city where non-governmental organizations could cooperate with the local authority best of all regions and information was given away without any delays, today we witness the worst situation in this region. It is problem to get into the building of the Administrative Building. Besides that it is difficult to get public information, to discuss the problems of the City and the ways of their resolution with the representatives of the government. All officials avoid having dialogues with the representatives of the NGOs and society,” said Chitadze.

Eka Jafiashvili, Shida Kartli Regional Coordinator for the Urban Institute, said that it is almost impossible to meet high-ranking officials. “The Governor does not have a reception day. None of the officials from the local authority meets the population. Even I cannot meet them, because very often they are not in the office. But even if they are, they are always busy.”

Representatives of the Young Economists Association also complain about the competences and carelessness of the local authority.

“We demanded the copies of the local budget for the previous and this year. They replied only two months later. They asked us to come to the Administrative Board a week later because the official whose competence it was to answer us was on holiday. There were occasions when the representatives of the Administration did not accept our applications at all,” said Shota Chilindarashvili, a representative of the Young Economists Association.

Saba Tsitsikashvili, the chairman of the Association “Kartlis Khma” said that the high-ranking officials do their best to hide the information: “It often takes long time to find out who is in charge to accept an application. We have to go from one to another quarter. They often lose applications, etc. Finally we have to appeal to the court to get any result. Once there was an occasion when they did not let me in the Administrative Board office but the building has back door to and I could get in through that one. Thus I came across the hidden “Jeep” of the Gubernator. The security guards were looking for me eagerly, finally they discovered me and made leave the building forcibly. However, I had found what I wanted.”

“Briefings and press-conferences are not held for journalists. Local officials almost never make comments and it prevents us to work and to establish general opinion,” said Tskitsikashvili.

A TV program was prepared by the non-governmental organizations and journalists at the TV Company Trialeti which revealed above-mentioned problems. Although the local officials were invited to the program, they did not come. Moreover, the electricity was cut off throughout the region when the program was aired.

The government, which was elected through self-governmental elections, avoids speaking with the society. Nobody will be able to tell you what their elected authority is doing in the region.

Thea Tedliashvili, Gori

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