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It Is Difficult to Protect Property

March 7, 2007

document.gifParliamentary opposition demands to introduce amendments to the legislation. In parallel to it, they demand the parliamentary majority to establish a special investigative group, which will study the legitimacy of the deconstruction of properties. Although, governmental parties and opposition agreed upon creating the inter-faction group, the investigative activities have not been started yet.

What do parliamentary majority and opposition think about the protection of private property? How much are the rights of owners violated and how should they protect their rights? We asked the representatives of the legislative body these questions.

Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the “Rights Opposition”: “It is evident that neither court, nor parliament, nor executive government nor self-government can protect the rights to private property. Unfortunately, the constitution and law is also invalid to give similar guarantees. Thus, a special law should be adopted and amendments should be introduced to the constitution in order to put an end to this cruelty. Today, the constitution and laws seem to be protecting the property; however none of them are followed.  The inter-faction group should investigate each fact of property damage and violations and if there is discovered any illicit actions in those activities the government should compensate the damaged owners. Initially, we will study the deconstruction that was carried out in the area of Underground Station Gotsiridze.”

Koka Guntsadze, representative of the parliamentary opposition: “We have studied several cases of property encroachment. Those cases include both forcible transfer of the property and deconstructions. It is a governmental invasion. One of the models of property encroachment is the following: financial police raids the entity, seals it up and finally the property is transferred to the state.” Unlike opposition, the parliamentary majority does not know the facts of property encroachment; however they appreciate establishment of inter-faction group.

Beso Djugheli, a representative of the Parliamentary majority: “I cannot insist that the private property is protected; however the government takes all efforts to protect it. The stark example for it is the initiative of setting up an inter-faction group. We want to find out and estimate the reality. I am not aware of the case materials and neither can I say what really happened; however I demanded from the very beginning to carry out deconstruction or transfer activities under the court verdict. The victims should appeal to the court to find out reality.”

One more representative of the parliamentary majority, Nino Kalandadze appreciates the initiative of creating the inter-faction group. However, she added that the group would not be in power of investigating the details and the conclusion made by the group would have no legal power.

Nino Kalandadze, deputy chairwoman of the Legal Parliamentary Committee: “I have a different idea regarding the inter-faction group. I do not think the group will be able to investigate anything properly, because it is not investigative group. In fact the group will be created to satisfy the MPs interests. However, as for demanding the materials on the case, inviting the City Mayer, Gigi Ugulava to the parliament, that is already planned, sounds strange. Ugulava is not responsible to the Parliament. He represents self-governmental institution that is completely independent. Besides that, the city hall is not responsible to compensate the victims of above-mentioned deconstructions. I think the idea of creating the group is a next political speculation and not the survey of the materials.”

Private Property or Illegal Constructions?

Lasha Makatsaria, the head of the Supervision City Service Department, does not agree with his opponents and says that his office fights against private property and illegal constructions. According to his information, nearly 2 500 garages, 500 shopping cabins and one hundred buildings were destroyed in the strategic areas. Besides that, 100 thousands of laris were allocated to the state budget.

Lasha Makatsaria: “It is approximately eighteen months since the department was established. Prior to it nobody cared about the city. I can say that it is the campaign against illegal constructions and is not a property encroachment. I give concrete answer to your concrete questions.

Journalist:  For example Orkidea Ltd that was deconstructed at the underground station Gotsiridze….

L.M. The area was leased by the Ltd owner; however, later the document was abolished. Besides that, the building that was on the area was a light, temporary construction which occupied much more territory that was envisaged by the document. Under the law, we warned the owner in written and oral way, but the woman did not accept any of them. There is an order on deconstruction of the building that was signed by me. So the building was destroyed under the law. Now, the woman has appealed to the court.

Journalist: What happened about the Nia Ltd? A strange letter was sent by your office. It stated that the deconstruction of the building was not discussed. However, the building had already been deconstructed by that time…

L. M.  When the letter was sent, administrative proceedings had not been started on the case.

Journalist: Why was the building destroyed then if the proceeding was not launched yet? The reply was dated by 22 and the building had already been destroyed on 17…

L.M. Saginashvili did not send a letter regarding the deconstruction and I am responsible for the mistake.

Journalist: I have this document and it is signed by Saginashvili…

L. M. You might be mistaken. There is a letter that was sent by Akhvlediani and was signed later. It is a simple mistake that does not have any importance at all. Regarding the deconstruction there is my resolution and nobody would have avoided the responsibilities. As for Nia Ltd, everything happened legally and there is nothing to argue about. In this particular case we destroyed old, illegal building.


Journalist:  One more concrete case was the deconstruction of a private building near the Special Operation Department (moduli) building. There are your letters regarding that building and so-called Shushis Sakhli, where you stated that the deconstruction was not ordered by you. Who has destroyed it then?


L.M. I do not remember the building near the Moduli building. Certain people might have destroyed it and now they are blaming the supervision city service department for it. As for the Shushis Sakhli, there was no normative act because owners and our office made an oral agreement. That is, we were to assist them technical and no more supervision was implemented. The process was agreed on. The letter stated that the proceeding was not carried out under administrative regulations and the supervision department did not take part in the process.

Journalist: It is strange because the owners said they had not received any warrants regarding the upcoming deconstruction and the legal procedures were not followed…

L.M. Warrants and correspondence do exist except those cases where we had made oral agreements with owners. In this case, the owners were destroying the buildings themselves or we helped them technically.

Journalist:  Deconstruction of the building of “Merry Time’ near the underground station caused public concern. The documents show that this building was legally built.

L.M. I do not want to comment on this particular case in details out of owners’ interest. We are holding some negotiations with them. We are ready if these people appeal to the court against us. We are ready to prove our truth at the court. There might have been some procedural violations and if the court concludes that our office is responsible for them, the City Hall is ready to compensate the victims. However, we are not guilty and the court will never make such a decision. As for creating the inter-faction group, it cannot order us anything. Illegal buildings are being destroyed and not the private property.”


Although, Makatsaria claimed that his office is destroying illegal constructions, in most cases there are documentations, damaged owners, the Public Defender and parliamentary opposition that claims opposite. The victims hope that the court will pass just verdict, though some of them had to pay thousand of lari as a court fee and thus they lost hope of just trials. At present the court has not discussed any of these cases. There are several facts, where the City Hall is carrying out negotiations with victims and they can be compensated with the damage.

Eka Gulua

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