Another Kartu Group representative appointed on a senior position
On January 12, 2016, the deputy mayor of Tbilisi Giorgi Solomonia resigned. As his replacement Tbilisi mayor Davit Narmania appointed Grigol Liluashvili, director of Kartu Group.
Grigol Liluashvili has served as the director general of Kartu Group as well as the chairman of its Supervisory Board since 2015. He has also held the position of the director of Old City Development Ltd since the company’s registration on March 11, 2014. The company was initially owned by GCF Partners Ltd, which is currently owned by Giorgi Bachiashvili (50%) (executive director of the Co-Investment Fund) and Ucha Mamatsashvili (50%) (deputy director of JSC Partnership Fund and cousin to the former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili). Since April 2014, Old City Development has been owned by FRANKSTON INTERNATIONAL S.A. It should be noted that Old City Development is the company behind the Panorama Tbilisi project, which plans construction on the Sololaki Ridge, Liberty Square and Erekle Square.
The appointment of Grigol Liluashvili as deputy mayor of Tbilisi is the latest example of a tendency of appointing persons (or their family members) working in companies associated with the former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili on leading positions in the public service. Transparency International Georgia has previously reported on this tendency, which became apparent after the 2012 parliamentary elections and has given rise to the commonly held belief that the former prime minister still has informal influence on the government. The appointment of Liluashvili only reinforces this belief.