Mixing Business & Politics
Op-ed
Georgian Dream might lose not only the constitutional but the plain majority in Parliament. Non-Governmental Organization Transparency International (TI)-Georgia has accused the majority MPs of violating entrepreneurial legislation and has published a list of those who hold official parliamentary seats on the one hand and at the same time cling to their executive positions in various private companies. Alongside the MP-Directors listed in the report, you can find the surnames of MPs who get revenue from shares they own in businesses and pay taxes according to the laws they write themselves. It will be no surprise to see them in the court room sometime soon…
Transparency International-Georgia vs 51 MPs
The publication containing compromising evidence against businessmen MPs was linked by the political elite to the processes that are developing within the Georgian Dream. It is no secret that the government majority party has become divided as it chooses who will best represent it in the upcoming local elections, illustrated most clearly in the cases of Rustavi and Gardabani. “The only hope of the Georgian Dream is the legislation, the Central Election Commission and the Constitution,” said political analyst Soso Tsintsadze, adding that Ivanishvili has long been disheartened with the governmental party and its internal conflicts. “It is time the Dream learned to walk on its own. Where Ivanishvili served as their baby walker till recently, that time has passed. Shortly, quite expectedly, he will get tired of dragging them around. Ivanishvili did everything for them; gave them the government, but they started floundering; competing at who could make more mistakes. He doesn’t want to be responsible for unofficial meetings about, for example, Jejelava’s idiotic statements or Kvirikashvili’s unjustified staff policy. Especially considering the catastrophic social background of the country,” Tsintadze added.
The GD members themselves link the publication of TI-Georgia’s report to the ongoing confrontation within the governmental party, accusing the NGO of executing a political order. Everyone knows that the party is split into two, with one side supporting former Vice Premier and majoral candidate Kakhi Kaladze, and the other Prime Minister Kvirikashvili, plus the integrated Majoritarians who try to keep neutral.
Who’s with whom is hard to understand in all the confusion. For instance, some forecasted that the report on the businessmen-MPs would be followed by the publication of secret documents about Kaladze’s agreement with Gazprom. Expectations proved correct; only two days passed and Roman Gotsiridze from the United National Movement declared that he was holding documents that Kaladze had signed and which show the catastrophic rates. This makes it almost impossible not to believe that the secret documents were simply Xerox-copied from Prime Minister Kvirikashvili’s “residential office” without him being aware of it.
The scandal about Parliament member Irakli Sesiashvili’s son, who used to work in the State Security Service of Georgia, was also linked with the internal controversy of the Dream.
How this war for discreditation develops is hard to foretell; the only thing we know is that the businessmen-MPs who do not deny the violations and blame everything on a legislative flaw might face the threat of being stripped of their mandates.
Zaza Jgarkava