Watchdog Sues Ministry over ‘Secret’ Enguri HPP Deal
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), a human rights advocacy group, said it had appealed to court against the Energy Ministry’s decision not to make a memorandum with Russia’s state controlled Inter RAO over joint management of Enguri hydro power plant public.
“GYAL thinks that the public interest towards very important decisions made in respect of energy sector prevails over commercial interests of individuals and keeping [such decisions] confidential is unacceptable,” GYLA said in a statement.
The Energy Ministry, which signed the memorandum with Inter RAO in late December, said that it made the document confidential upon the Russian company’s request, which, according to the Ministry, wanted to keep some sensitive commercial information in secret. Based on this memorandum, which is not a legally binding document yet, a binding contract will be signed between the two sides, which will be made public, according to the Energy Ministry. The Ministry officials, however, indicated, that the potential contract might become public only after the signing.
The memorandum has only been shown to a group of lawmakers from the parliamentary minority.
“There is only one article [of the memorandum] which is a commercial secret and it concerns issues related with export of electricity,” MP Paata Davitaia, who was among lawmakers seen the document, told Civil.Ge on February 5. “The Minister [of Energy Alexandre Khetaguri] has spoken about other provisions [of the memorandum] publicly and there is nothing new in this regard.”
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