Author: Georgi Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusively to VK
In the near future the Secretary of the National Security Council (NSC) and close associate of the Georgian President, Giga Bokeria, will be called for questioning by the Attorney General under the financial audit of the NSC. Observers do not rule out Bokeria’s arrest, because a criminal case has been instituted into an instance of abuse of power. Article 333 of the Criminal Code provides for up to 10 years in prison.
The subject of the huge "non-targeted spending" of the NSC was raised by the new authorities immediately after the victory in the October parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Ivanishvili has repeatedly said that "we need to understand the spending of the NSC", and according to Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri, the NSC in recent years "has spent about 100 million on lobbying for the interests of Mikhail Saakashvili in Western capitals."
The NSC budget for 2013 has been reduced from 15 million to 1.2 million. Bokeria himself denies the charges and refers to the need "to promote the interests of Georgia abroad, including through the funding of lobby groups and advertising companies."
In the budget scandal the sides proceed from different premises: Ivanishvili's team does not consider the interests of President Saakashvili to be identical with the interests of the state of Georgia, and the former government is constantly trying to put an equals sign between them. For example, the National Security Council has repeatedly sponsored articles and interviews with the Georgian leader in the most prestigious Western publications, including The New York Times and the Washington Post, where they were published as an advertisement. This scheme was used in the electronic media, as well as for forming a positive image of the country in global television broadcasts. For example, CNN has produced a series of programs about the development of the resort areas of Georgia, the reform of the police and so on. Most often they were released on air as an advertisement, and the government (through the National Security Council) paid sizeable amounts for each plot.
Another item of expenditure is public-relations campaigns and lobbying services of professional Western agencies to work with groups of influence in Western capitals, for the promotion of Georgia, for promoting the Georgian version of events in August 2008 (including the Hollywood film "Five Days in August") and so on. Money also was spent on organizing prestigious visits to Georgia by western VIPs, organizing concerts of popular musicians, featuring stars of world cinema in the local arts festivals. These costs, by definition, could not be open, but under current law, the NSC has the right to classify its expenses. That is why the budget office, which employs only 20-30 people, was so huge.
Bidzina Ivanishvili said that a million dollars would be enough for the NSC to carry out its basic functions - risk analysis and preparation of national security council meetings. However, because of the cool relations between the president and the prime minister, the NSC has not met since last October. Not without reason, Ivanishvili believes that at a time when the president has become a "lame duck", he will use the NSC resources to lobby his own and not the public interest in the West.
It is not clear what the government will do, if U.S. and European companies that have entered into secret contracts with the National Security Council before the parliamentary elections will require payment and go to law, not against Saakashvili, but against the Georgian state itself. After all, they will have nothing to pay - spending is not officially permitted in the state budget. Then the row will be released on the international stage. However, this problem is unlikely to really bother Ivanishvili. He never hid the fact that he financed lobbying companies from his own budget, and it does not take much for him to make agreements with the professionals.
Nevertheless, the situation is heating up around the NSC every day and could lead to serious confrontation ahead of the presidential elections. VK asked the Rector of the Diplomatic Academy, Iosif Tsintsadze, to comment on what is happening.
- Is the financing of lobbying through hidden sources inherent in democratic countries?
- This is a very delicate issue. In most democratic countries there are items in the budget which cannot be made public and are considered confidential. On the other hand, a test is a test – it is necessary to eliminate the possibility of appropriation of public funds. So it is necessary to check this, but very delicately. The investigation will have to pass between Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand, we need to identify violations, but so that it would not jeopardize the public interest.
It is surprising that the authorities decided to check the NSC and not, say, the Ministry of Agriculture, where there are outrageous violations, and Minister David Kirvalidze was forced to resign because of them. So, the politicization of the issue on the NSC is obvious.
It is important to pay attention to the form in which it all happens. It is unacceptable to disclose information about spending, if it occurs for reasons of national security and promotion or protection of the interests of the country abroad.
You can often hear that if the amount was for publication of certain materials in the Western press, it is supposedly "non-targeted spending of budget money." So you can get to the point of absurdity. In fact, the determinant must be the NSC operational agreement. If it does not allow for such expenses, then they were illegal and those guilty will be punished for abuse of power. In this case, no matter how much money was spent - $10, or $100 million.
