On March 13, 2014 the Governmental Commission for Regional Development of Georgia (“Commission”) issued a statement in which the Commission offered the public “to discuss the transformation of villages adjacent to the self-governing cities into self-governing communities with their administrative centers located in said self-governing cities.” The commission also decided to launch consultations with city councils of the abovementioned municipalities and their residents. The commission expressed willingness to accept and discuss alternative proposals from the residents and NGOs. To this end, the commission planned to hold public meetings with respective municipalities starting March 18th.
The announcement of the Commission gave provided hope that the decision on the division of seven municipalities into “city” and “village” was not final, and that the government was truly willing to hear the opinion of civil society. On March 17, 2014 representatives of sixty central and regional NGOs met at a conference in the Courtyard Marriot Hotel in order to introduce their vision regarding the optimization of municipalities to the Governmental Commission for Regional Development and majoritarian MPs of the municipalities. The City Councils and the Commission both approved our proposal to be actively involved with the public in the discussions.
Unfortunately, for reasons not quite clear to us, the Commission postponed the meetings that were to start from 18 March. With a short time left before the self-governance elections, suspicions arise that the Commission has artificially postponed the process because it is reluctance to hear an alternative opinion.
We are submitting official proposals on the administrative and territorial organization of the country to the government of Georgia and City Councils of all seven municipalities. The proposals have been considered in detail by NGOs and independent experts involved in the group working on territorial development at the Advisors’ Panel of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure.
To reach the public-at-large, our proposals regarding administrative and territorial organization of the Telavi, Ozurgeti, Zugdidi, Gori, Ambrolauri, Mtskheta, Akhaltsikhe and Tsalenjikha Municipalities have been published on the websites www.tvitmartvelobisdroa.ge and www.droa.ge. At the same time, we are holding public meetings locally to introduce our models to the population of the respective municipalities and to hear their opinion about them.
We call on the Governmental Commission for Regional Development and the City Councils of Telavi, Ozurgeti, Zugdidi, Gori, Ambrolauri, Mtskheta and Akhaltsikhe Municipalities, not to make a decision without the consideration of the alternative proposals and public discussions.
We demand that the Governmental Commission for Regional Development resume meetings with population in the municipalities in order to discuss alternative proposals submitted by us.
We call upon the government of Georgia to submit to the Parliament of Georgia the decisions made through consultations with the municipality population and public organizations.
