GYLA To Protect Rights of Competition Participants

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

Opposition part of the Kutaisi city council and nongovernmental organizations protest the results of the test competition for the applicants of the vacant positions in Kutaisi local self-government. The competition has been topic of public interest from the very moment it was announced.

Head of nongovernmental organization Europe Our Home Gia Gokadze said the competition in the Kutaisi local self-government was bluff. “Test results did not play any role in it. It is natural that nobody cared about the results. The desire of the city mayor and chairman of the city council was to satisfy the interests of their relatives and friends. And they did so – they hired their own people for vacant positions. It was not difficult for them because the city council chairman was the head of the commission.”

Representatives of the City Hall deny the allegation and claim “as a result of the competition competent people were hired in the service departments of the local self-governmental bodies.”

“Of course they like everything because everything was done as they planned – they hired their own people. The competition was conducted just to deceive people. In fact, relatives of the Kutaisi city mayor Shota Murgulia and other local officials were employed in the city hall and city council,” said Sulkhan Kobuladze, head of the Center for the Defense of Public Interests said.

Nato Katamadze, member of the city council from the Republic Party, officially requested test examination results from the commission. As Katamadze said she has not received a reply so far and refrains from making statements at the moment. But, she noted that some applicants, who received low points in exams, as well as people who did not participate in the competition at all, were employed on different positions in the local self-government.

GYLA together with three more nongovernmental organizations monitored the test competition in the Kutaisi local self-government – Transparency International Georgia, Georgian Young Economists’ Association and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy. However, all four organizations were allowed to observe the competition only during the last, interview stage.

The competition commission agreed to allow only one observer of all four NGOs to attend the interview process. The Commission did not allow NGO representatives to observe the decision-making process after the interview.

“We think the commission’s decision hindered us to implement full observation of the process and to make effective evaluation of the commission’s work. The fact that the commission closed the decision making process for NGO representatives, deprives us from the possibility to answer the questions: how impartial, fair and unbiased the commission was towards each candidate during decision-making process,” said chairman of the Kutaisi office of the GYLA Giorgi Tchikaberidze.

He declared readiness to provide competition participants with free legal aid, who protested the competition results. The participants have already applied to the GYLA for help.