Ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili dismissed criticism of a bill stripping the Georgian National Bank of supervisory functions of banking sector and said its adoption would help to increase “independence of banks”. 

The bill, co-sponsored by Georgian Dream lawmaker Tamaz Mechiauri, who chairs parliamentary committee for finance and budgetary issues, has been criticized by business associations and President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who indicated recently that he would veto the bill if it is approved by the Parliament.
 
“Those who make such statements that it [the bill] would pose a threat to investment climate do not understand what kind of amendments is planned in Parliament. On the contrary, it will give more independence to banks and they will no longer – if such things exist – become victims of political games by the National Bank,” Ivanishvili told journalists on June 4 after attending an event in frames of his funded project on citizenship education among school students.

In a newspaper interview last month MP Mechiauri, who is a fierce critic of President of the Georgian National Bank, Giorgi Kadagidze, complained that Ivanishvili, when he was the PM, did not arrest Kadagidze because of a request from a “representative from one of the international organizations.”

When asked about it, Ivanishvili told journalists on June 4 that he told the prosecutor’s office to drop investigation against central bank chief Kadagidze over his alleged role in a plot against Cartu Bank, owned by Ivanishvili, upon a request of International Monetary Fund (IMF) “representative.”

He was apparently referring to investigation, which was launched by the Interior Ministry shortly after the Georgian Dream coalition came into power in late 2012. The case stemmed from alleged concerted attempts by various branches of previous authorities to force Cartu Bank to bankruptcy, when Ivanishvili was in the opposition.

Ivanishvili said that “at a private meeting, IMF representative asked” him not to arrest Kadagidze.

“I took it into consideration; they knew that he [Kadagidze] violated law and he deserved to be arrested… but they asked me to forgive him and I told them that as far as it was about my personal matters [as Cartu Bank is owned by his family] I could do that and I suspended proceedings in the prosecutor’s office; Javakhishvili was very upset about it,” Ivanishvili said referring to Nodar Javakhishvili, who is now infrastructure minister and who at the time was head of Cartu Bank.

Ivanishvili also said that he did not deem his request to the prosecutor’s office as meddling in investigation as it concerned Cartu Bank and thus it was his “personal” matter. 

“But if he [Kadagidze] has a violation, committed against the state, of course I cannot cover him up,” Ivanishvili added. “As it seems he has some other violations as well, but it has to be confirmed and it is up to the court to decide.”

When Ivanishvili unveiled his incoming government few days after his Georgian Dream coalition won October 1, 2012 parliamentary elections, he also announced that he wanted Nodar Javakhishvili to replace Kadagidze as President of the Georgian National Bank. But no such statement or any publicly known action had been undertaken since then to materialize this intention. Under the law Prime Minister had and still has no authority to replace a central bank chief. Kadagidze’s seven-year term in office expires in February, 2016.