The President’s Gift to Nino Burjanadze: Next to Nothing to Keep Her Quiet

Eka Kevanishvili, Tbilisi

A rather large chunk of territory of the Tskneti governmental residence has been handed over to the family of Nino Burjanadze, former Speaker of the Georgian Parliament. Mikhail Saakashvili, the president of Georgia gave a plot of land and the accompanying buildings to Nino Burjanadze one month ago. It is claimed that this was out of appreciation for the contributions she made to the development of democratic values and parliamentary system in Georgia and to show appreciation of the entire country for her contributions. Apparently the former head of the parliament accepted this gift, otherwise it would have been expected that greater society would have already heard of her refusal. 

The following decree of the President of Georgia proves the fact of transmission:

Decree No 299 of the President of Georgia
8 May 2008 Tbilisi
On the Privatisation of State Owned Property through Direct Sale
1. For the contributions made to the development of democratic values and parliamentary system in Georgia and special merits to the country, taking into consideration the motion of the Government of Georgia, in accordance with article 6, paragraphs 5 and 6 of the law on the Privatisation and Transfer of the Property Owned by State and Local Self-Governing Unity, to be transferred to Nino Burjanadze (ID Number Ng0030167, personal No 01026000650) for a symbolic price of 1 GEL[1] the following property located in Tbilisi, Tskneti settlement, on the territory of the governmental residence: 571 m2 building No 4,8 (Cottage # 2); 39 m2 Vehicle shed No 6; buildings No 1, No 2, No 3, No 5, No 7 and the plot of 31 696 m2 of non-agricultural land attached to the buildings (cadastral code No 01.20.01.109.018 of the plot (real estate)) and the inventory located therein.

Officially this plot is valued at 4 million USD, but an expert claims that according to Tskneti plots’ market price (one thousand dollars per 1 sq. meter) the simple mathematical calculation would determine that the transfer of property is worth at least 30 Million dollars for the above-mentioned plot.

We do not know whether Nino Burjanadze knew about this surprise or not. The former head of the Georgian parliament is not in Georgia at the moment and she has yet to share any comment. However, one month has passed since the decree was passed and she has had ample time to share some comments.

The Tskneti governmental holiday house had been transmitted to the family of Zurab Zhvania, the late Prime Minister of Georgia following his death. However, Nino Kadagidze, the Prime Minister’s widow refused to receive the present of this kind and stated that Zurab Zhvania himself would not accept such a present.

Gia Khukhashvili, economical expert evaluates negatively the fact of giving a present to Nino Burjanadze by the president. He states that this fact looks more like an attempt to bribe the former head of the parliament rather than to prize her for her merits and fine deeds:

“In my opinion this was an attempt of bribing Nino Burjanadze in order to avoid her expressing some key opinions during the period of the pre-election period. Burjanadze’s possible critical comments would otherwise have damaged the fine reputation of the ruling party and this was not in the president’s best interests.

Though the president’s power has come close to unlimited rights in this country, this decree was actually in accordance with current Georgian legislature. However, if we take into consideration that many IDPs were physically ousted from their temporary places of residence in Tskneti, that it would appear that the president’s step for transmission of the property in Tskneti to Nino Burjanadze for a symbolic price was unconstitutional and done in bad taste.

It is immoral to receive this present from the president when the half population of Georgia is starving. If Burjanadze knew about the handover of the plot to her then I consider her decision as the termination of her political career, but maybe she does not know about it.”

There are many such instances that the society does not know anything about. In short, a group of people received a rather nice piece of property for next to nothing.  Not only on the grounds of merits to the country must we note. For example, several hospitals that had been completely renovated were transferred to some people for a mere 1000 USD. In January 2006 the president gave the representatives of the patrol police 4 Niva cars for 5 Dollars each. This list goes on and on …

We wrote a request to the Ministry of Economic Development for receiving the list of other properties given away as gifts. We shall receive an answer in 10 days, but we did not wait for the full answer and wrote this article in the meantime.