UNM disapproves of vehicles obligatory testing project
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, November 10
Georgia’s main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), disapproves of the governmental initiative to introduce the mandatory technical inspection of vehicles from 2018.
The UNM believes that the new project will become a source of corruption, adding that most cars in Georgia are old and they will not be able to pass the testing, which means “officials will get rich and the people will be taxed”.
Member of the UNM Irakli Abesadze says the new system will be similar to the Soviet-era system of technical inspection, which caused issues with corruption well into the 1990s.
Abesadze claims that 44% of cars in Georgia are more than 20 years old and 90% of vehicles are more than 10 years old, which means that the majority of vehicles will fail the technical inspection.
“However, this does not mean that hundreds of thousand cars will stop…this means that the system will be a source of corruption. Instead of employing more people and increasing the budget of families, additional funds and bribes will be received from people by the government officials,” said Abesadze.
The project of obligatory technical inspection of vehicles was presented by Georgia’s Vice Premier and Economy Minister, Dimitri Kumsishvili on Tuesday, who said the government intended to involve international companies in the process, in order to implement European standards in the country and to promote a healthy and safe environment for the citizens of Georgia.
The government announced a tender to purchase the service of a qualified consulting company regarding a vehicles inspection system. Any interested companies can take part in the process. The price of testing will be determined after negotiations with a tender winner consulting company.
The application deadline is December 8 2016. The evaluation process will be conducted by the relevant governmental commission, which will discuss presented proposals and reveal the winner. The Government will take the final decision.
The infrastructure for periodic technical inspection of the vehicles will be organized in every region in 2017 and the mandatory inspection will officially go into force from December 1 2018.
