The organization “Young Barristers”, analyzing agreement concluded between the Government of Tbilisi and the company “C.T.PARK” on December 7, 2007, doesn’t rule out the possibility of some other “shadow agreements”, concluded between the former administration of Tbilisi City Council and the current company of “C.T.PARK”, granting rights of parking management to the “C.T.PARK”, in order to regulate parking of vehicles on the roads within the territory of Tbilisi. Such “shadow contracts” may only serve to the financial interests of the high ranking officials of the City Government and may include some cartel deals as well.
The lawyer of the “Young Barristers”, Jaba Sirabidze, considers, that there is a reasonable suspicion, that part of the contract, concluded between the “C.T.PARK” and the Government of Tbilisi, remains secret. This assumption was confirmed by the evidences, revealed during the study of the issue. In particular, some essential points in the contract, regulating parking service activities, concluded with the “C.T PARK” , as well as in the changes and amendments to the mentioned contract, are omitted.
The agreemen,t concluded between the Government of Tbilisi and the “C.T. PARK” has experienced several changes during the recent years, most important of which should be regarded the resolution of the Government of Tbilisi, adopted on March 28, 2011, extending the term of agreement until December 31, 2024. The analysis of the contract reveals, that mostly, parties appear to be in unequal conditions. The vivid example of this claim are the provisions of the contract, regulating income distribution. According to the contract, Tbilisi City Council should receive 60% of the earned income from penalties and the VAT and 40% should go to the “C.T.PARK”. It may seem that the State budget gets the large part of the income, however, the real proportion of the amount, received by the municipality and the company is still unknown. It should be noted, that the contract doesn’t define, what can be regarded as the income received from the VAT, and accordingly distribution of another forms of funds, apart from parking fees, remains vague and questions the financial part of the contract.
According to the appraisal of the “Young Barristers”, equally important are the issues of contract termination and compensation as well. Compensation, determined by article 12(2) of the contract, which should be paid in case of violation of the article 9 of the contract on behalf of Tbilisi City Council , represents a transfer of the exclusive authority, granted to the company, to the 3rd party. The organization considers, that amendments to the contract, according to which, execution of certain obligations on behalf of the company, have lost it’s binding nature, is also very important. Such obligations are: installation of the technological system necessary for implementation of services – According to the article 16 of the contract, within 3 months after getting special approval, the company “C.T PARK” was obliged to deploy special equipment for parking fee payment within the territory of the capital. The issue of the contract term extension is also important. It was initially considered as a secret information, like an entire agreement itself.
The “Young Barristers” notes, that analysis of the contract, concluded between Tbilisi City Council and the “C.T.PARK” on December 7, 20007, reveals that, classification of the issue as top secret, was carried out illegally, as far as the text of the agreement doesn’t belong to the category of the state secret.
The organizations appeals to the self-governance of the capital, to provide legal expertise for the contract, concluded with the company “C.T. PARK”. Besides, the “Young Barristers” responds to the proposal, according to which an alternative company of the “C.T.PARK” may also start activities in Tbilisi, and considers, that the initiative may bring new risks and difficulties to the citizens, unless the economic and legal sides of the issue are not thoroughly and objectively justified.
