What cases are studied by the prosecutor’s office in Gori City Hall and District Administration

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

Prosecutor’s office withdrew decisions and financial documents of the past four years from the Gori district administration. The prosecutor’s office is interested in the period of one and half year when United National Movement was in power and two and half years when the Georgian Dream was in power.

Head of legal service at the Gori City Hall Temur Manvelishvili said the representatives of the prosecutor’s office entered the Gori City Hall and municipal administration based on the resolution of February 15, 2015 and they withdrew documentation dated from January 1, 2010 to January 1, 2015.

“I do not have information about concrete issues but apparently they conduct scheduled examination,” Gori city mayor Zurab Jirkvelishvili responded to the fact; he cannot see anything alarming in the activities of the prosecutor’s office and does not expect noisy detentions either. Big part of the withdrawn documentation covers the three and half year activities of the Gori municipal administration and six months activities of the city hall.

Although the documentation withdrawn by the prosecutor’s office covers the period of both Georgian Dream and UNM’s governance, the representatives of the UNN, who are now in opposition, do not worry about it either. Chairman of the Gori district organization of the UNM Kakha Toliashvili said the investigation might be interested in the activities and expenditures of the local government when Georgian Dream was in office.

Kakha Toliashvili, chairman of the UNM Gori organization: “There are many question marks how budget funds were spent in Gori City Hall and municipal administration; for example tenders and village support programs. Implementation and rational expenditure of funds in many projects are questionable. Maybe, the prosecutor’s office is interested in all this.”

Nobody makes comments at the Gori prosecutor’s office about concrete cases they are interested in at the Gori city hall and municipal administration. 

This fact became topic of controversy between the local government and opposition. UNM expects some noisy arrests in the local city hall like it happened in the Tbilisi City Hall when senior official Jokia Bodokia was arrested. Representatives of the City Hall say that the prosecutor’s office is interested in the expenditures and reasonability of the implemented projects during the UNM governance.