Paper: PM May Face Constitution Violation Accusations
The Georgian daily Rezonansi reported on May 1 that the government plans to propose amendments to the law on entrepreneurship in an attempt to legalize the presence of the Prime Minister, Energy and Economy Ministers on the board of the newly created, state-owned Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation Ltd (GOGC).
According to Rezonansi, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Mikheil Machavariani has admitted that membership into the cabinet of members of the new company’s board contradicts the Georgian Constitution.
The GOGC was established after a merger of three state-owned energy companies: the Georgian International Gas Corporation (GIGC – which controls the country’s trunk gas pipeline), the Georgian International Oil Corporation (GIOC) and the state oil company, SakNavtobi.
According to the law, membership on a board of a company is regarded as entrepreneurship and the Georgian Constitution says that a cabinet member may hold no other position except in a political party and may not be involved in commercial activities. “The government-proposed amendment will refer to the article which deals with the definition of entrepreneurship,” Rezonansi reported.
“This [presence of the cabinet members in the company’s board] is really a violation of the Constitution. There are questions which should be answered and the Parliamentary Chairperson [Nino Burjanadze] has already instructed our legal experts to study this issue… This is a clear violation and even if the law is amended, it will remain a violation, because the decision [about the PM, Energy and Economy Ministers’ board membership] was made before the amendments,” the paper quoted Vice-Speaker Mikheil Machavariani of the ruling National Movement party.
PM Zurab Nogaideli denied that the Constitution was violated.
“But in order to avoid any misunderstanding, the government is now preparing amendments [to the law] and these amendments will soon be submitted to the Parliament for approval,” the Rezonansi quoted PM Nogaideli.
