Christian Democrats want to check up on the Interior Ministry

The Christian Democrats voiced a new legislative initiative at a special briefing on December 7, demanding Parliamentary monitoring of the work of the operative-technical department of the Interior Ministry. The party is calling for a group which will observe how effectively and rationally money is spent in the Ministry, how surveillance and bugging is conducted, how equipment is purchased and how information is obtained and used.

Deputy Nika Laliashvili, who presented this proposal, said that they had already sent the initiative to Parliament. “The monitoring group will be authorised to create temporary investigation commissions on the areas it monitors. The Ministry will also have a duty to give information to the group timeously when requested,” stated Laliashvili. He also mentioned that the necessary sums for establishing and running the Parliamentary monitoring group should be included as a separate item in the budget set aside for Parliamentary work. He added that the monitoring group should consist of representatives of every faction and independents but be chaired by an opposition MP.

The Parliamentary majority has responded to this initiative by saying that it is pure populism and not thought through. “Each MP is able to monitor the work of the Government, and I cannot see the necessity of creating a monitoring group. The initiative is not reasoned out,” said Lasha Tordia, a member of the majority party.

Leader of the Georgian Troupe Jondi Bagaturia told The Messenger that he had not been informed about the proposal and cannot comment on it. However Manana Nachkebia, a member of the New Rights, told us: “Firstly, I must say that there is no need for that kind of monitoring group in any ordinary democratic country. But in the present situation in our country, where there is no democracy, even if such a group is created it will not be able to monitor the things the public are interested in knowing about. So I do not think that the monitoring group will work.”