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Sighnaghi – Town of Seized Properties

April 7, 2011

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti News Center

Tourist Company Ltd “NGC Tour” purchased the unused administrative building of the Culture and Rest Park in Sighnaghi in 2005. According to the purchase contract, the tourist company took responsibility to open its branch in Sighnaghi for the restoration of the Park and for the development of tourism. The Ltd NGC Tour executed its responsibilities and it was confirmed by the Ministry of Economic Development though later the property was seized from the company.

Case of NGC Tour

Sighnaghi office of the State Property Registration and Privatization Department sold the amortized administrative building of the local Culture Park for 1 750 USD on September 20, 2005; the building belonged to the Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sport of Georgia.  The Ltd NGC Tour won the announced tender for the purchase of the building. Giorgi Chirinashvili, trustee of the director of the Company Tamar Kasradze participated in the competition. Giorgi Chirinashvili’s daughter has been working for the tourist company of Tamar Kasradze.

The purchase agreement was signed on October 3, 2005. The competition conditions were clarified in the article 2 of the agreement. “The purchaser shall act in accordance to the competition requirements; more precisely, they should pay price within one month term; to arrange and install side-shows for children and an open summer stage within 6 months; to restore the park in its original face; to build multi-storied building instead old one with billiard, table tennis and other facilities on its ground floor; for the development of the tourism, the purchaser had to open its office on second floor of the building which could bring additional income for the district budget. The property will be assigned to the purchaser after the price is completely paid and agreement requirements are completely implemented.”

The agreement has particular conditions too: the price cannot be paid partly; throughout the agreement period the purchaser cannot sell, exchange, rent out, lease out or mortgage the property without agreeing it with the seller. The agreement does not provide information about its duration and its deadline. If the requirements of the article 4 in the agreement are breached, or improperly executed, sanctions will be imposed on the purchaser.

On November 16, 2005 head of the Sighnaghi office of the State Property Registration and Privatization Lia Zurashvili issued property certificate on the NGC Tour.

According to the Sighnaghi office of the Public Registration Agency, the property was registered on the Ltd NGC Tour on December 2, 2005 that means the purchaser executed the requirements of the agreement.

“Levan Bezhashvili Requested Me to Give Up Property”

Giorgi Chirinashvili, representative of the Ltd NG C Tour: “Everything was almost ready. We had finished part of activities. The park was already rehabilitated; the paths were paved and people were having rest in it. Nobody rebuked us because we continued the restoration of the park. In 2007, with the president’s initiative, the rehabilitation of Sighnaghi town started and we started to face some problems.”

Giorgi Chirinashvili said Levan Bezhashvili, former MP and head of legal committee in the parliament of Georgia, requested him to give up the building. “We met in the parliament several times. Initially I refused but he started to give promises and sometimes he even threatened me. At that moment my son was in prison and they threatened me about him. They said I would face some problems in my business and my son would have problems in prison. If I assigned the property to them, Bezhashvili promised me to release my son earlier. I had to give up my property. The building and part of the land was registered on certain Tavadze,” said Chirinashvili.

On February 24, 2007 purchase agreement of the real estate was signed between Tamar Kasradze and Armaz Tavadze; subsequently the Ltd NGC Tour sold its property in Sighnaghi to Armaz Tavadze, former director of the Anti Monopolist Service of Georgia, for 15 000 GEL.

Sighnaghi municipal board allowed the Ltd NGC Tour to sell the property to Armaz Tavadze. The municipal board clarified the decision by the development of the tourist infrastructure in Sighnaghi. However, the park is still in poor conditions. Only a new hotel was constructed on the place of the old administrative building. Officially, the hotel belongs to Armaz Tavadze. Sighnaghi municipal board allowed Tavadze to construct hotel on October 15, 2010 based on the resolution # 124; though the construction was already finished by that time.

The photo of the article published on September 17, 2010 on the Kakheti News Center proves that the hotel was already built before permission on the construction was issued.

http://www.ick.ge/ka/articles/2809-2010-09-17-10-00-32.html 

Sighnaghi resident and lawyer Tengiz Bezhashvili said Tavadze’s hotel is supervised by Jumber Bezhashvili, father of Levan Bezhashvili, currently chair of the Chamber of Control. “I personally witnessed several times that Jumber Bezhashvili supervised the construction of the hotel. Levan Bezhashvili also visits and controls the hotel,” said Tengiz Bezhashvili.

According to the purchase agreement, Armaz Tavadze lives in Imereti Street in Tbilisi. He was head of the Anti Monopolist Service and founder of the Radio Commersant; currently, he is a director general of the Insurance Company “Ardi Group”. We tried to visit him at home and call on the phone but it was impossible to get in touch with him.

Levan Bezhashvili was member of the Parliament of Georgia in 2004-2008. Simultaneously, Bezhashvili was head of the legal committee in the parliament. In February of 2008 he became Kakheti regional governor. Giorgi Chirinashvili said he met Bezhashvili as a regional governor again and requested to keep his promise and assist him to release his son from imprisonment but the governor refused. Levan Bezhashvili occupied the position of the regional governor till July of 2008. From July 15, 2008 he has been chair of the Chamber of Control of Georgia.

We could not get in touch with Levan Bezhashvili to interview him about this problem. Head of the administration at the Chamber of Control Giorgi Botkoveli promised to tell Bezhashvili what issue we wanted to discuss with him. Almost two months have passed since then and we called Botkoveli several times; he said the chairman refused to meet and give interview to us.

Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan

Vano Tsabutashvili and Irakli Ghvinepadze purchased the building of former archive in Kostava Street in Sighnaghi in April of 2007 on the auction. According to the purchase agreement, the purchaser had to cover the privatization sum within 30 days; to open a beer house in the building, to reconstruct the façade of the building and invest 100 000 GEL in it.

In May of 2007, the officials from the district office of the State Property Registration and Privatization inspected whether the purchaser had implemented the requirements of the agreement. As a result of the examination, they drew up a protocol which states that the building façade was reconstructed and beer house was working in it. The officials of the Ministry of Economic Development prove that the requested 100 000 GEL was timely invested by the purchaser and the privatization sum was also paid within the required time. Property certificate was issued on Gocha Ghvinepadze and Vano Tsabutashvili on May 28, 2007.

Afterwards, Ghvinepadze and Tsabutashvili divided the property. Gvinepadze became owner of the ground floor and the second belonged Tsabutashvili. In 2008, Tsabutashvili sold his property to his sister-in-law, citizen of Ireland and Georgia - Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan.

In 2010, the Ministry of Economic Development started administrative proceeding on the abolishment of the purchase agreement between the Ministry and Tsabutashvili-Ghvinepadze. The motive for starting the proceeding was breached agreement by Vano Tsabutashvili; though the document does not indicate which requirement of the agreement was breached by him.

On March 16, the Ministry of Economic Development issued decree on abolishment of the purchase agreement. The Ministry ordered its Kakheti regional office to seize the property and assign it back to the state. Kakheti regional office of the State Property Registration and Privatization requested the Sighnaghi district office of the Public Registration Agency to register the building of the former archive in Kostava Street in Sighnaghi back on the state. The Public Registration Agency satisfied the request.

Lawyer of Ciara Rosemarie O'Sullivan Malkhaz Pataraia clarified that before annulling the purchase agreement with Vano Tsabutashvili, the Ministry was entitled to inform the purchaser in advance in written form.

“The ministry was entitled to inform the purchasers in written form and fix deadline for them to improve the mistake and estimate the fine for breaching the agreement. The purchase agreement obliged the Ministry to send similar letter to the purchasers,” said the lawyer. He said the property was seized from Ciara Rosemarie O’Sullivan and Irakli Ghvinepadze without any preliminary warning.

Malkhaz Pataraia, lawyer: “According to the Article 21 of the Constitution of Georgia, Deprivation of property for the purpose of the pressing social need shall be permissible in the circumstances as expressly determined by law, under a court decision or in the case of the urgent necessity determined by the Organic Law and only with appropriate compensation. However, no urgent necessity was observed in this case and nobody appealed to the court either.”

The Ministry of Economic and Stable Development does not comment on the fact.

Ciara Rosemarie O’Sullivan requests her property back and material compensation. She has already won the trial at the first instance court. The Ministry of Economic Development appealed against the judgment of the district court; now Tbilisi Appeal Court is discussing the case.

Journalistic investigation prepared in the framework of the project implemented by Studio “Monitor” with the Financial Support of the EU Mission in Georgia, Eurasian Partnership Foundation and Open Society – Georgia.

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