Reorganization planned in Tbilisi City Assembly
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, September 18
At an extraordinary session of the Tbilisi City Assembly (Sakrebulo) the United National Movement (UNM) resisted against the agenda including the issue of reducing staff planned by the council.
Member of minority Ketevan Kochorashvili said that to her it seems that the newly established majority of the council continues fighting for position and chairs. She said the majority is oriented on employing their own “fun club”; they do not consider the recommendations of the Interagency Commission, according to which, during the reorganization of the announcement of the election and the dismissal of employees is not feasible. She worried that a lot of good specialists will be left without jobs. “This is when the new council chairman, Irakli Shikhiashvili, has five assistants , and at a time when the council officials are purchasing expensive cars recently,'' stated Kochorashvili.
The minority appealed to independent deputies advising them to refrain from making such decisions, in which labor rights will be violated.
On a special briefing, one of the leaders of the UNM, Temur Grigalashvili, said that they have information that City Council plans to fire dozens of people. "I would say that this is the second wave of the battle for chairs. In the first stage, the position has already been taken and I would like to emphasize that all 25 members of the majority are public officials,” he said.
Stressing that the main duty of the Sakrebulo MPs is to take care of the population, not to create problems and leave people without jobs, Grigalashvili called upon all the people that were illegally released to go to court. We are standing by their side, and we will fight for their rights," stressed Grigalashvili.
The statement made by the minority was responded to by the legislature's Chairman, Jaba Samushia and the chief of the City Hall staff, Giorgi Pitskhelauri. Samushia presented the list to the staff that existed until October of 2012 and said that by that time, “dead souls” were taking the wages. "We are moving towards optimization. It was needed to reduce the inflated states," stressed Samushia. According to him, it will be reduced only 13 places in the staff. "The public should know the truth, and the truth is that the UNM released 46 people on political grounds in 2010, and these cases are still in the court," added Samushia.
Pitskhelauri explained the details of reorganization, calling the statements of UNM groundless.
Mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, also responded to the planned reorganization and said that more than 5,000 people were fired from self-government institutions since October of 2012. According to him this process is still underway.