State Audit Office to present report on Defence Ministry

Georgia’s financial authorities are keeping a close eye on the financial activities of the country’s Ministry of Defence, it has been revealed.

Auditor General Lasha Tordia said the State Audit Office (SAO) of Georgia has studied the financial workings of the Defence Ministry for more than a year at the request of the Ministry itself. Once the report was finalized, the results would be released.

At today’s announcement, Tordia said the SAO had received a written request to monitor the finances of the Ministry during ex-Minister Irakli Alasania’s term in office.

The issue was raised after Parliamentary majority leader David Saganelidze said the SAO should present its report to lawmakers in light of the current accusations against the Ministry.

"We started to check the Defence Ministry on July 7, 2013. We are checking the period of 2011, 2012 and 2013,” Tordia said.

"The State Audit Office received a written request for [monitoring] during Irakli Alasania’s term in office. In addition, when I visited the Georgian Parliament, MPs asked me when we would start to audit the Defence Ministry. All this was taken into consideration and we started [reviewing] this Ministry,” he said.

The Auditor General noted during the investigation, questions arose surrounding a number of procurement cases that were carried out in recent years.

"We have questions with regards to some purchases carried out during and before Alasania’s term in office but our materials are not related to the so-called cable or soldiers’ meal provision cases [where hundreds contracted food poisoning],” Tordia said.

The Auditor General then said all materials had already been sent to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office. The final results of the audit will be revealed in about month and a half, Tordia noted.

Former Defence Minister Alasania responded to Tordia’s statement and again claimed the campaign against the Ministry of Defence was politically motivated.

"The Auditor Office started checking on my request. I am confident that the work done by my Ministry and the Audit Office shows the real situation in the system,” he said.

"The most important thing is that everything is being concentrated against the Defence Ministry and against me. This is politically motivated, nothing else. I am waiting patiently to get the cases investigated by the prosecution public,” Alasania noted.

Meanwhile Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani did not believe it was particularly noteworthy that the SAO was reviewing the Ministry of Defence.

"The Audit Office did not only [review] the Defence Ministry but it worked in the Justice Ministry as well,” she said.

"We cooperate with [the SAO], we have already been checked. A report has also been prepared on us and we will accept it. Therefore, I do not see anything special in the fact that the Audit Office prepared a report on the Defence Ministry,” Tsulukiani noted.

Meanwhile, inTbilisi City Court today six men accused of negligence that led to hundreds of cases of food poisoning were released on bail until their verdict is announced and sentencing takes place.

Three former Defence Ministry high officials and three employees of the company in charge of the Army’s nutrition face charges of negligence which resulted in about 860 military servants contracting food poisoning on ten separate occasions in 2013.

All six pled not guilty and said they would fight to prove their innocence.