Giorgi Chanturia, who has served as Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) general director since August 2009, has filed for resignation.

Chanturia said that although much had been done under his leadership, a failure to fully implement his own goals, among them “optimization” and introduction of a new structure within the GPB, was a reason behind his decision to step down.

GPB’s board of trustees was convened on December 14 to discuss Chanturia’s request for resignation.

New head of the GPB should be elected for a six-year term within a month by the board of trustees as a result of competition.

Chanturia said that his resignation was not related to ongoing tax probe in GPB.

Revenue Service at the Finance Ministry has launched probe in GPB in early November to find out why the broadcaster has GEL 3.8 million debt accumulated in unpaid taxes.

Chanturia said that the Finance Ministry should decide in January whether to restructure the debt or not. “It’s an ordinary and usual process,” he added.

Georgian Dream and its leader PM Bidzina Ivanishvili have long been accusing GPB of a failure to be “a genuine public broadcaster” and of biased reporting in favor of the previous authorities.

Chanturia has always denied the allegations, citing report from OSCE election observation mission saying that “only the Georgian Public Broadcaster offered balanced coverage of the [election] campaign in their newscasts.”