Georgian President Orders Abolition of Transport Regulatory Body

Text of report by Georgian Imedi TV on 21 February

[Presenter] At a cabinet meeting this morning the president [Mikheil Saakashvili] demanded the abolition of the Transport Regulatory Commission. The president told the economic development minister [Giorgi Arveladze] that his ministry must put a big padlock on the commission’s office by 1800 hours today. Saakashvili expressed his surprise at the fact that parliament approved the law creating the totally corrupt body. It is a leech that feeds off the people’s pockets, the president said. Saakashvili added that a new draft law on [the abolition of] the Transport Regulatory Commission had already been drawn up and would be submitted to parliament next week.

[Saakashvili] At a time when parliament was busy with a number of other important issues, this draft law on the transport regulatory body somehow sneaked its way through parliament. Unfortunately, we were not able to pay sufficient attention to the fact that a totally corrupt law was being adopted. A leech was created with the long name of the Georgian National Transport Regulatory Commission. It feeds by overcharging every passenger who flies in Georgia and every passenger who enters the country by sea and it had similar plans for railway passengers, though the railways resisted.

People pay the Transport Regulatory Commission so that its employees can sit in their nice offices – [changes tack] Guess how many employees there are. Two hundred and seventeen. Two hundred and seventeen leeches work – [changes tack] I apologize to all of them, because they are human beings and many of them were quite decent employees who certainly should not be left out in the street, but I am saying that in this case they act as leeches. They exist parasitically at the expense of the Georgian people in order to improve their own living conditions.

All employees will clear out their offices by 1800 hours today. I order the Economic Development Ministry to put a padlock on this agency and reassign its employees so as not to leave them without jobs – put them to work because we need many qualified workers.

A [draft] law should be submitted, but as of today, on my verbal order, which I hope will be made law next week by parliament, payment of all surcharges by the people to this parasite must be put to an end once and for all. If necessary, enlist the help of the police.

[To Arveladze] Go to a shop and buy a big padlock and close this agency down. Henceforth I will shut down all such things regardless of who lobbies what in parliament. I do not care about any of that. I care about one thing: protecting the public from various special interests. This is a lesson for those who got this law through parliament and for those who engage in these harmful activities in this agency, as well as for those who plan to continue to create and allow such things in Georgia in the future.

[Rustavi-2 at 1000 gmt on 21 February reported that the head of the Transport Regulatory Commission, Aleksandre Chkhikvadze, had been taken to hospital on the night of 20-21 February, where doctors determined today that he was in need of urgent gall bladder surgery.]

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