Press Digest 11.09.2014

“Doubled expenses and big embarrassment – will two delegations be sent to the USA from Georgia?

City Park does not care about people

Petrol price remains stably high in Georgia despite the fact that it has ratcheted down on international market

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“Doubled expenses and big embarrassment – will two delegations be sent to the USA from Georgia?

“Two delegations, doubled expenses, two protocols, doubled flurry of activities in the host country– these are the results of the determination from the Georgian President and the PM to attend the UN Assembly. Neither of them is going to back down; both of them are digging in their heels and think that it is their prerogative to represent the country on the international scene. However, the political experts are sure that by refusing to compromise, they will besmirch the country’s image in the international scene,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

"As you know, PM Gharibashvili took the floor and delivered the speech at the UN General Assembly on 26 September. Within the same Assembly, President Margvelashvili also planned to deliver the speech but the previous week the Foreign Ministry said that it had not been committed with the task to prepare the President’s visit. In addition, Irakli Gharibashvili stated a couple of days ago that the Government had discussed this issue and had decided that the delegation would be headed by the premier. However, this issue was not resolved so easily; as it appeared, President Margvelashvili also prepared to pay a visit to the USA. This issue has also sparked discrepancy among the members of the Government. Some of them claimed that the delegation led by the PM must attend the assembly and the President’s arrival there will only spoil the situation. However, in parallel to this, the representatives of the President’s Administration assert that it’s up to the President to decide where to go and no one on earth is entitled to give directions to him,” says the article.

“Our authorities are truly on the horns of dilemma today; in addition to these endless political spats, one nuance also poses addition problems to them. If two delegations go to the USA, expenses will by all odds be doubled and they will have to withdraw a large sum of money from the state budget. And obviously their move to do so will substantially underfund the budget of such a small and moderate country as Georgia. In addition, as member of the parliamentary majority, Giorgi Volski maintains, this will create additional problems for the host country – the UNO will have to deal with a number of logistical issues if two delegations from one and the same country will visit it,” reads the paper.

“The Government hopes that the President and the PM will manage to hammer out a solution to the issue by making concessions. However, as they say, both of them are entitled to show their position in terms of the issue. According to the Ministers, the Assembly must be attended by the Prime Minister; and in order to back up their allegation, they bring the arguments too: I, as a diplomat, who has gained some experience in this sphere while serving in the UN, think that the delegation must be led by the PM,” announced Defense minister, Irakli Alasania, on the program “Choice.” From his part, Giorgi Margvelashvili also brought some arguments to corroborate the allegation saying that the President must represent the country at the assembly. In the President’s words, everything is being prepared and he will undoubtedly pay a visit to the U.S. In addition, he also wished the PM success and a prolific visit there.

“However, it should also be noted that as per our constitution, the President is not even entitled to independently communicate with his foreign counterparts not to say anything regarding his right to attend the UN Assembly,” concludes the author of the article.

City Park does not care about people

“City Park” uses any regulation introduced by the Government to its own advantage and it has done the same regarding the Government’s initiation to replace the old vehicle number-plates with the new ones that are in line with the European standards. They started to give out these new plates from September 1 and has distributed 1 500 of them so far. And the new registration plates have reportedly posed problems to the drivers – as you know the new parking permits issued to the drivers corresponded to their vehicle registration permits. As long as these new plates have not been registered in the company’s base, the owners of all cars having been found on the parking lots have been fined by 10 GEL,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“When the people expressed their overt outrage because of this incident, the leadership of City Park realized that they had gone too far, and yesterday they issued a special appealing the drivers to gear the parking permits to their new registration plates by visiting the City Park Service Center on #47 Kandelaki Street… Follow their direction on this particular occasion is not difficult; however, this is a new method of ruffling the people’s nerves. MIA released a statement on replacing the vehicle registration cards with new ones 3 months ago, and the City Park was obliged to warn the public at least several days earlier; obviously they should have called on them to gear their parking permits to their registration plates earlier; however, they refused to take this step. Obviously, they wanted to benefit from the situation and make as much money as possible at the expense of the people,” says the article.

“If the people who are at the helm of “City Park” aimed to deal with the people’s problems, they would have resolved the issue easily – the City Park and MIA Service Agency would have entered into contract and the drivers would have obtained new parking permits with their new registration plates without any difficulty. If everything ran smoothly, a driver would have granted several days to obtain new parking permits; however, the City Park refused to give this opportunity to the drivers and set to imposing fines on them. And now a man who desires to obtain a new parking permit, must stand in a queue all day long…,” reads the paper.

“Thus, because of the unwillingness from the leadership of the City Park to fulfill its duties and because of the fact that these people are permanently on the make, the people have found themselves in an extremely unbeneficial situation. The people cannot hide their dissatisfaction with those at the helm of the company, and one day they even might take over the building and chase them out of it… The Alia gazette tried to connect the “City Park” Public Relations Service Head, Levan Tabidze but he refused to issue a comment regarding the matter,” concludes the author of the article.

Petrol price remains stably high in Georgia despite the fact that it has ratcheted down on international market

The price of petrol is ratcheting down on the international market; however, the leaders of our oil companies have ignored this process. For example, as per the internationally established price, a wholesale petrol price is not more than 1.71 GEL, and this means that the difference between the wholesale and retail price is 40 tetris in Georgia,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“The difference between the retail and wholesale petrol prices have never been so high here before – even under the former Government. It is also worth noting that one of the most noteworthy pre-election promises the acting authorities have undercut is to decrease the petrol price. In spite of the fact that the petrol price on the international market has been stably low, here, in Georgia, it has remained the same thus far,” says the article.

“The price of oil has ratcheted down across the world; however, in Georgia it has remained steadily high. In addition, the quality of petrol and high-standard service at the petrol stations also matters much. That is why they must restore an institution which will monitor this process,” claims Emzar Jgerenaia. As for analytical expert, Beka Kemularia, in his mind, the companies are taking arbitrary steps,” reads the paper.

"By decreasing the oil price by 2-3 tetris, they aimed to put a blindfold on the eyes of the people. In the beginning of July when the price of oil started to ratchet down on the international market, the importers increased it again. As for the Government, it has failed to pursue the people’s interests by quenching the oligarchs’ voracious appetite,” concludes the author of the article.