UNM holds rally at Mayor’s Office
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, October 16
Members of the United National Movement and those dismissed from the Mayor’s Office held a rally in front of the Mayor’s Office on October 15. They demanded that the certification process of the Mayor’s Office staff be suspended before the court makes verdicts over the cases of former employees who claim that they were illegally fired.
Representative of the United National Movement Nika Melia also admits that the certification process is unfair, as certain staff members knew the test beforehand. Melia claims that Vice-Mayor Aleksandre Margishvili should not lead the commission responsible for the certification process.
The United National Movement also made a special statement concerning the situation in the Mayor’s Office saying that the employees of the Tbilisi Mayor's Office are being pressured unlawfully. The party said in the statement that the pressure is of a systematic character, saying it is the duty of law enforcement to react upon it.
"However, the Prosecutor's Office of the Georgian Dream is taking its time to start an investigation into these facts."
According to the statement, against the background of threats and pressure on the employees, holding certification exams means continuing the process and predicts its partiality.
A couple of days ago Rustavi2 TV released a test sample and some employees of the Mayor’s Office claimed that the Mayor’s Office administration was giving the tests to those they wished to stay in the office.
“I am sure that the certification process will be unfair,” Head of the Supervision Department of the Mayor’s Office Giorgi Khaburzania said.
Commenting on the speculations, the Mayor’s Office released a statement that says: as soon as the certification date is voiced, samples of the tests will be available on the Mayor’s Office web page as well on the web page of the National Exam Centre.
The office also made a statement regarding accusations that was giving the tests to certain employees beforehand. They stressed that the test samples revealed by Rustavi2 TV were copied from the Dusheti administration web page and depicted the 2013 tests for the local administration employees. The Mayor’s Office indicated the link where people could recheck the information. (http://www.dusheti.org.ge/?m=4&sm=4&ID=221#Doc221)
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Transparency International Georgia and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) state that reasonable doubts about the practice of the dismissal of public servants from Tbilisi City Hall by means of exerting pressure secretly or openly have been expressed before.
“We released subsequent statements on a number of occasions, urging the authorities to take further action, but we are still unaware of any measures that law enforcement are taking in response to these reports. We would like to reiterate that pursuant to Article 169 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, it is a crime to “coerce an individual into writing a voluntary letter of resignation”. We urge all relevant authorities to probe the ongoing reports and take adequate action. We also urge the Tbilisi Mayor to ensure that the impending accreditation and competition in Tbilisi City Hall is conducted in an objective and transparent manner,” the NGO statement said.
