The Messenger
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Commission investigates disappearance of USD 45 million
Credit allotted by Japan to rehabilitate two power stations in 1999-2002,
but commission says 90 percent has been misused
By Christina Tashkevich
Parliamentarians accuse officials from
the former government for siphoning of
funds from a grant to rehabilitate portions
of Georgia’s troubled electricity system
The Parliamentary Temporary Investigation Commission on violations in the
energy sector met on Monday to discuss the fate of the USD 45 million credit
allotted by Japan to the Georgian government to rehabilitate Khrami-2 and
Lajanur hydroelectric power stations in 1999-2002.
Head of the commission MP Gia Natsvlishvili said at the meeting that the
credit should have been spent on “fully rehabilitating” these two
hydroelectric stations. “As a result, Georgia would have 220 megawatts more
this winter,” he said.
Natsvlishvili stressed that this would be a cheap energy resource “while we
now have problems with Russian imports and have to buy very expensive
energy.”
But according to the commission, the rehabilitation works are now in the
same condition as they were when the credit was allotted. “About 90 percent
of this credit has been misused,” said Natsvlishvili.
According to the commission chair, former high-ranking officials such as
officials from the ministry of energy and heads of energy companies could
have been involved in misusing the money. For example, he names the former
Sakenergo Director and former minister of energy David Mirtskhulava as one
suspect in this case. He thinks that the names of other people involved in
this case will be revealed during an investigation by law enforcers.
“The commission will discuss this issue, and it will decide whether to send
the documents to the General Prosecutor’s Office for launching a criminal
case,” Natsvlishvili explained on Monday.
Meanwhile the head of the commission also commented on the fate of the other
cases they sent to the Prosecutor’s Office. “We monitor how the Prosecutor’s
Office investigates cases we have already sent to them,” Natsvlishvili said.
One particular issue the commission investigated was the rehabilitation of
Enguri hydroelectric station. Natsvlishvili said the Prosecutor’s Office
launched two criminal cases on this issue, which are currently under
investigation.
Meanwhile, former minister David Mirtskhulava, who was also previously head
of the National Energy Regulatory Commission, is accused of abuse of power
and hiding secret materials.
In particular, the General Prosecutor’s Office named a contract agreed with
Armenergo during the period when Mirtskhulava was minister, which the
investigation claims is one-sided and artificially increased Georgian
Railway’s debt to Armenergo from USD 4 million to USD 6 million.
The investigation says that Mirtskhulava agreed to this in return for
certain benefits – namely, helping mediator company Energomanqkorporatsia to
embezzle 90 percent of the USD 6 million transmitted from Georgian Railway.
Georgia still had to pay the debt as a result of the one-sided contract
Mirtskhulava had signed.
As for the second charge against Mirtskhulava, according to the Prosecutor’s
Office, he took secret materials relating to Georgia-Armenia criminal
relations from the Energy Ministry and hid them in the office of the
National Regulation Commission.