Vice-Speaker Wants Probe into Legislators’ Conflict of Interests

Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Mikheil Machavariani, from the ruling National Movement party, said on September 12 that parliamentarians will be given the opportunity to establish a special commission which will investigate potential conflicts of interest of legislators, both from the ruling and opposition parties.

“My proposal is to set-up an investigative commission to probe into conflicts of interests of some parliamentarians in connection with the customs terminal Opiza. But this commission will have to investigate the activities of MP Davit Gamkrelidze [leader of opposition New Rights party] starting from 1994 as well,” Mikheil Machavariani said.

This statement by the Vice-Speaker is a response to accusations voiced by MP Gamkrelidze, who alleged, on September 5, that Machavariani, together with Koba Bekauri, another parliamentarian from the National Movement, are behind the Opiza customs terminal. The parliamentarians alleged that wrongdoings were being carried-out concerning the customs terminal and that these wrongdoinds are also related to the current detention of 202 TV co-founder Shalva Ramishvili.

Machavariani, who strongly denied these allegations, reversely accused MP Gamkrelidze of illegally running an insurance business, starting from the mid 1990s. David Gamkrelidze is a founder of Aldagi, an insurance company that grew to be one of Georgia’s biggest businesses.

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