“Construction of the Parliament in Kutaisi”

Today, on April 23 in hotel “Courtyard Marriott” GYLA presented a research “Construction of the Parliament of Georgia in Kutaisi” prepared in the framework of the project “Promotion of Accountability and Transparency in Georgia”.

By this monitoring GYLA attempted to find out lawfulness of implemented procurements of works for construction of the Parliament building in Kutaisi and reasonability and effectiveness of incurred state expenditures.

Public information retrieved from and disclosed by public agencies served as the primary source for the monitoring.

With a view to receive public information GYLA central and Kutaisi branch offices filed administrative complaints to public agencies as well as lodged administrative cases to the courts when necessary.

The monitoring revealed following trends:

• Problem of having access to public information – nearly all state and private agencies responded that they did not possess information requested by GYLA Kutaisi branch. State or local self-governing bodies ignored transparency and accountability principles whereas the case concerned construction of the building for the supreme legislative body which cost totally 73 775 300 GEL from the central and Kutaisi local budgets.

• Redirecting to other competent agency without reasoning -  In response to our application public agencies adviced us to apply to relevant competent agency that was violation of paragraph 1, Article 80 of the General Administrative Code of Georgia.

• Violation of the term to disclose public information – 10 days’ term envisaged by the Administrative Code of Georgia for release of public information was often violated;

• Court position – In the part of disputes’ examination it is evident the court terminated examination of all administrative cases for the absence of the subject of dispute;

• Lack of transparency - 73 775 300 GEL was spent absolutely unclearly and with high probability by corruption transactions, since completely confidential process proposes  a legitimate ground for making such findings.

In view of the above, it is evident that construction of the parliament building was not transparent and was carried out with ignorance of legislative norms.