President of the Georgian National Bank (NBG), Giorgi Kadagidze, said on June 5 that ongoing “mudslinging campaign” against the central bank is damaging the country and called for focusing on tackling economic problems, instead of engaging in blame-shifting.

Commenting on ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s statement that he asked prosecutor’s office to drop investigation against Kadagidze upon the request of International Monetary Fund (IMF), the central bank chief responded: “To put it mildly such unserious remarks about IMF… are very damaging for our country.”

“We see mudslinging against the NBG for three years already… Our position is simple – there is prosecutor’s office, judiciary and if there are questions, we are here to answer,” Kadagidze said.

GD MP Tamaz Mechiauri, who chairs the parliamentary committee for finance and budgetary issues, said that Kadagidze “himself is a danger to economy, not the statements Bidzina Ivanishvili is making.”

MP Mechiauri is a co-sponsor of a newly proposed bill, which if approved will strip NBG of its function to supervise banking sector and transfer it to a separate agency, where board members will be elected by the Parliament. The bill, backed by ex-PM Ivanishvili, has been criticized by business associations and President Giorgi Margvelashvili indicated that he would veto the bill if it is approved by the Parliament.

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Commenting on Ivanishvili’s remarks, IMF resident representative to Georgia, Azim Sadikov, said in a statement on June 5 that IMF “has not taken, and cannot take a view on the issues related to justice and individuals’ relation with the law.”

“In its dialogue with the Georgian authorities, the IMF has consistently emphasized the importance of respecting and preserving NBG independence,” Sadikov said.

Georgian central bank chief, Giorgi Kadagidze, said at a news conference on June 5, that in recent months he had to state for number of times that “attacks and slander campaign against NBG should stop.”

Asked if this “campaign against” NBG aims at forcing him to step down, Kadagidze, whose seven-year term in office expires in February 2016, responded: “It’s hard for me to answer that question. There are constitutional terms and those terms will be observed.”

He said that at first there were calls on the central bank to spend more U.S. dollars from reserves to support falling lari; then it was followed by “completely groundless allegation” as if lari depreciation was caused by increase of amount of money and “then there were accusations about various conspiracy theories as if NBG and commercial banks were involved in speculation” on exchange market.

“Of course as soon as professional debates are held – privately or publicly – all these allegations burst like soap bubbles,” Kadagidze said.

“I want to state it unambiguously that had it not been for a very principled position of the NBG, the damage caused by the depreciation of lari would have been much higher,” he said.

“Allegations we are hearing recently is nothing but an irresponsible attempt to overshadow the most acute problem – negative impact caused by depreciation of lari,” he said. “Discussions should be ongoing on promotion of investments, tourism and tackling of specific problems… but instead tireless campaign against the NBG is continuing.”

“We have no time for blame-shifting and witch-hunting. I want to call on everyone to stop attacks on the NBG; that’s damaging for the reputation of our country and affects negatively on investors’ stance,” Kadagidze added.