18 Million for Pirveli Kavkasiuri

Netgazeti.ge

Government of Georgia reduced budget of the Georgian Public Company based on its new resolution; however, Russian “Pirveli Kavkasiuri” (PIK) received additional funds for broadcasting.

Based on the August 26 resolution, Ministry of Finances of Georgia shall reduce the funding of the GPB with 4. 900. 000 GEL and the sum will be recovered into the reserve fund of the government. In parallel to it, one million GEL will be sent back to the GPB from the reserve fund for “Kei 1” Ltd.

The Ltd manages the third Russian language chancel of the GPB – Pirveli Kavkasiuri. “Kei 1” Ltd had its contract on the PIK management expired. Despite that, the Ltd still continues its activities as a manager and has already applied to the director of the GPB to prolong their contract before January 16, 2012. In addition, the “Kei 1” Ltd requested additional three million GEL for the completion of the launched projects.

We kindly remind you that appearance of the “Kei 1” in the broadcasting market caused public discussions.

Owner of 60% of the Company is Robert Parsons, who became director general of the PIK when the Ltd obtained the right of management. Owner of the rest 40% share is Ekaterine Kotrikadze who occupied position of the head of GPB’s news room.

Before that, Kotrikadze was anchor of the TV-Company Alanya; correspondent of the RTVi and Ekho Maskvi.  Short time ago she was target of public interest because of her interview with the Russia’s President Medvedev. British citizen James William Robert Parsons worked for the BBC’s Russian and international offices. He was editor of the France 24 TV’s international news and worked for the Georgian office of the Radio Liberty.

Nothing is known about previous cooperation between Kotrikadze and Parsons – they became targets of public interest only a year ago after their “Kai 1” Ltd obtained right of Pirveli Kavkasiuri’s management. Kotrikadze and Parsons founded the Company on July 6, 2010 (legal address of the Company is Kotrikadze’s residence address) and several days later, on July 12, they applied to the GPB for the management of the third channel of the GPB. Based on the decisions of the government and GPB’s Board of Trustees the Ltd obtained the management right easily. In 2010 the “Kei 1” Ltd received 7 million GEL from the government’s reserve fund.

Lately, on August 29, 2011, the GBP’s Board of Trustees allowed the Director of the GBP to prolong contract with the “Kei 1” if the government allocates additional 3 million GEL for the PIK. Levan Gakheladze, chair of the Board of Trustees, said soon the GPB will prolong its contract with the “Kei 1”.

Thus, the total budget of the Pirveli Kavkasiuri in 2011 will amount to 18 million GEL. This figure is mentioned in the amended budget approved by the Board of Trustees. Former budget of the PIK was 15 million GEL.

According to the management contract, “Kei 1” is entitled to submit full quarterly reports (attached with corresponding documents) about its activities (including financial expenditures, implemented procurements, etc) to the GPB.

“Relatively, the activities of the “Kei 1” will be transparent for the society and will exclude all doubts about their activities,” stated the Board of Trustees in 2010 when they were criticized together with the GPB and the government for having assigned the PIK to the Ltd without any competition.

Nevertheless, no reports about financial expenditures of the Pirveli Kavkasiuri have been available for the society yet.

According to the Public Registry, since 2011 “Kei 1” has been creditor of the Bank of Georgia. The Company has mortgaged its current and future property.