MP Arrested for ‘Corruption’

MP Gia Nutsubidze of the ruling National Movement party was arrested while giving GEL 50 000 as a bribe to an official of the Education Ministry on October 27, Tbilisi’s Chief Prosecutor Giorgi Gviniashvili said on Friday.

Gviniashvili said that MP Nutsubidze was lobbying for a construction company that had a GEL 4 million deal with the Education Ministry for the construction of new schools in a number of Georgia?s provincial districts. But Ministry decided to cancel the contract after the company failed to fulfil its obligations.

?After the decision of the Education Ministry MP Nutsubidze offered GEL 500 000 to the official from the Ministry in exchange for the continuation of the company’s contract? This official and the Education Ministry have actively cooperated with the General Prosecutor?s Office? As a result MP Nutsubidze was arrested at the moment of handing over GEL 50 000 to the official, which was a part of the total sum of the bribe,? the Chief Prosecutor of Tbilisi said at a news conference late on October 27.

Education Minister Kakha Lomaia said that the company embezzled state funds.

The Parliament has now to discuss whether to strip Gia Nutsubidze of his MP credentials.

?It is very unfortunate what has happened – I am shocked,? MP Levan Bezhuashvili, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Issues, said.

MP Nutsubidze is a member of the parliamentary committee on procedural issues and the committee on education.

This is the second time a parliamentarian has been arrested in the past two years. MP Giorgi Kenchadze, also from the ruling National Movement-Democrats party, was arrested in May, 2004 on extortion charges.

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