Transparency International Georgia assessed the activities carried out by the City Council of Zugdidi municipality (Hereinafter Zugdidi City Council) in 2020.

The report is based on the information requested and received from the City Council as well as the information published on the official website of the City Council, and on observations of our organization.

The research covers the period of 2020.

Transparency International Georgia evaluated Zugdidi City Council’s performance in 2020 as well. The study covered the period from November 2017 to 2019.

Main Findings

• During the research period, the oversight function of Zugdidi City Council over the Zugdidi City Hall and the legal entities has been partially improved. Based on the recommendation provided by Transparency International Georgia, the City Council of Zugdidi approved the abolition of the dysfunctional Zugdidagroservice LTD, which is a significant improvement in terms of resource management;
• The City Council has not identified a single case of the conflict of interests and a violation of any type in the activities of Zugdidi City Hall, including in the process of state procurements;
• Zugdidi City Council held 18 sessions, including 6 extraordinary sessions;
• Zugdidi City Council adopted 42 resolutions, 35 of which were authored/initiated by Zugdidi City Hall and 7 - by the City Council;
• Two individuals among Zugdidi City Council officials submitted incomplete asset declarations;
• During the same period, only two out of six factions of the City Council - Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia and Conservatives submitted initiatives. The factions - United National Movement, Industrials, Greens and European Georgia have not submitted a single initiative to the City Council.
• The expenditures made by Zugdidi municipality, which summed up to GEL 276,826, is greatly disproportional with the minimal performance of the factions;
• As of 2020, only 7 out of 50 members of the City Council are women, which is 14% of the total number;
• The Gender Equality Council operates in the City Council of Zugdidi, however, similar to the last period, the Gender Equality Council has not carried out the analysis of the legal acts nor has it provided the expertise on the draft legal acts. It has not elaborated the monitoring and evaluation system for ensuring gender equality. The Gender Equality Council has not submitted a report to the City Council, and has not prepared propositions and recommendations as well;
• During the research period, the members of the City Council were absent 333 times in total during the City Council sessions, including 321 absences - without a valid reason. The members of the City Council did not participate in the commission sittings 431 times, including 425 absences - without a valid reason;
• Among the members of the City Council, a member of Greens faction, Zviad Korshia, missed the most sessions of the City Council (16 sessions) without a valid reason, while a member of European Georgia faction, Irakli Gurtskaia and a member of United National Movement faction, Malkhaz Tsikutania, missed the most sessions of commissions (31 sessions) without a valid reason;
• 25 members of the City Council have not exercised their right to deliver a speech in 2020, including 4 with the status of a public official.
• 16 members of the City Council have not exercised their right to deliver a speech during the sessions of commissions of the City Council. 41 out of 50 members of the City Council have not delivered reports to the City Council.
• A total of GEL 1,316,000 was allocated for the City Council expenses in the 2020 budget of Zugdidi municipality, out of which GEL 1,036,444 was spent on the remuneration. GEL 17,200 was given to the City Council staff as a bonus. The City Council spent 42,2 tons of fuel (42,257 liters) worth of GEL 74,112.
• Among the fuel used by Zugdidi City Council, the Chairman of Zugdidi City Council, Mamuka Tsotseria and his Deputy Chairmen - Besik Tchezhia and Tazo Patsatsia consumed a total of 14,637 litres of fuel in 2020, worth of GEL 25,954 in total, which is 34.6% of the fuel consumed by Zugdidi City Council during the same period.

Recommendations

Exercise of oversight function:

• Members of the City Council of Zugdidi should be actively involved in oversight activities. In particular, they should use control mechanisms more often and should supervise the process of public procurements and large infrastructure projects more effectively;
• The standing commissions of the City Council should be actively involved in the process of oversight of the activities of the executive bodies;
• The City Council should actively and conscientiously reveal cases of conflict of interest, incompatibility with office, and violations of the Rules of Procedure of the City Council and of ethical norms in the municipality.

Accountability:

• Attendance of members of the City Council at the sessions of the Council and its commissions should be improved. We believe that every member of a City Council should take responsibility and attend the sessions. In addition, members of a City Council should be subjected to corresponding sanctions in the event of missing a session without a valid reason;
• Members of the City Council should actively exercise their right to deliver a speech at the sessions of the City Council and Commissions, submit their thoughts on the issues under discussion, and provide the information on specific needs of citizens to the City Council as well as to the City Hall;
• Filling out asset declarations by officials is an important mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability. At the same time, filling out declarations incompletely also contains a risk of corruption. For this reason, it is necessary that officials fill out declarations completely and without any shortcomings.

Activities of factions:

• It is important for the activities of factions to be beneficial for the relevant self-government. Factions should get actively involved in the process of considering and deciding on issues that fall under the powers of the City Council, study / control the activities of the City Hall and municipal legal entities; submit initiatives to the City Council; get actively involved in the budgeting process; etc. Factions increase citizens’ involvement in self-government, as well as support local initiatives and advocate for citizens’ needs and problems. Therefore, we call upon the factions to use these instruments actively.

Expenditures of the City Council:

• It is important that the expenses incurred by the City Council to be in compliance with the exercise of the powers assigned to the Council by law;
• The City Council should exercise strict control on the administrative expenditures of both the representative body and the municipality in general, and should be oriented on efficient spending of financial resources.