Introduction:

Transparency International Georgia has evaluated the performance of the Kutaisi Municipality City Council of the 2021 convocation. The report is based on information requested from the City Council, information posted on its official website, and the observations of our organization. The study covers the period from November 2021 to May 2025.

This is the sixth time that Transparency International Georgia has evaluated the performance of the Kutaisi City Council. The first evaluation covered the performance of the City Council of the 5^th convocation from 2014 to 2017. The second evaluation covered the period from November 2017 to 2019. The third and fourth evaluations covered the years 2020 and 2022, and the fifth evaluation covered the performance in 2023.

Chapter 1. Key Findings

• During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council exercised weak oversight of the Kutaisi City Hall and the legal entities established by it. Oversight of officials and individual agencies accountable to the City Council was merely formal.
• The City Council did not convene an extraordinary session regarding Mayor Ioseb Khakhaleishvili’s early resignation and did not request an explanation or clarification from him regarding the reasons for his resignation.
• The City Council did not identify any conflicts of interest, incompatibilities of positions, or violations of its rules of procedure or ethical norms.
• From December 3, 2021 to June 2025, the City Council held 62 sessions, with only 17 of them being extraordinary.
• During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council approved a total of 131 resolutions. Of these, 104 were authored/initiated by the Mayor of Kutaisi, and 27 by the Chairperson of the City Council.
• During the reporting period, the two factions operating in the City Council did not submit any initiatives.
• The Kutaisi City Council abolished the Gender Equality Council on June 25, 2025, without the Council having prepared a single statement, document or other information on gender equality violations. Instead, a Municipal Council on Women and Children’s Issues was established.
• The Kutaisi City Council spent a total of GEL 5,537,410 on salaries. Office staff and contract-based employees received bonuses, supplements and allowances totaling GEL 237,415.
• The Kutaisi City Council had a consistently low attendance rate at meetings throughout the 2021 convocation. Opposition city council members missed the most meetings, though most of them had been boycotting since November 28, 2024.
• Not a single petition was submitted to the Kutaisi City Council during the reporting period.

Chapter 2. General information about the Kutaisi City Council

The Kutaisi City Council had 35 members, seven of whom were elected in single-mandate majoritarian electoral districts, and 28 members were elected proportionally.

• Initially, the Kutaisi City Council mandates were distributed as follows: Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia - 18 mandates, United National Movement (UNM) - 14 mandates, Gakharia for Georgia - 2 mandates, and Strategy Agmashenebeli – 1 mandate.
• After some UNM members left to form the Ahali party, the mandates were redistributed as follows: Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia - 19 mandates, United National Movement (UNM) - 6 mandates, Ahali – 7 mandates, Gakharia for Georgia - 1 mandate, Strategy Agmashenebeli – 1 mandate, and 1 independent councilor.
• Out of the 35 city council members, 12 were women, accounting for 34% of the total membership. Of 12 female councilors, only four held official positions.
• Out of the 35 Kutaisi City Council members, 19 held official positions until March 2025, and 17 members – after this date.
• During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council held 62 sessions, with only 17 of them being extraordinary. 90 bureau sessions were held during the same period.
• After the reporting period, regular sessions of the Kutaisi City Council were not held in August and September 2025 due to a lack of quorum. Previously, no City Council session was disrupted due to a lack of quorum.
• The Kutaisi City Council approved a total of 131 resolutions. Of these, 104 were authored/initiated by the Mayor of Kutaisi, and 27 by the Chairperson of the City Council.
• During the Kutaisi City Council’s tenure, five commissions were established, which held a total of 230 sessions throughout the reporting period and submitted 26 draft legal acts to the City Council. No commission meeting was disrupted due to a lack of quorum.
• During the reporting period, the supervisory body issued remarks/opinions on eight legal acts adopted by the Kutaisi City Council. The Kutaisi City Council shared all opinions.
• There were two factions working in the City Council: Marekhi Nizharadze, the chairperson of the Georgian Dream faction, had four deputies, as did Giorgi Kiladze, the chairman of the United National Movement faction. The UNM faction was dissolved on March 27, 2024 and the Progress Platform was established instead, also chaired by Kiladze. This time, however, he had two deputies.
• None of the Kutaisi City Council factions had any initiatives. They did not propose drafts of normative or individual administrative-legal acts.
• The total salary of the chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of the City Council factions amounted to GEL 823,666.
• During the reporting period, opposition members of the Kutaisi City Council missed the most meetings. Notably, since November 28, 2024, members of the UNM and Ahali parties had been boycotting due to ongoing political developments in the country. For detailed information on absenteeism, see the table below:

Chapter 3. Important Developments

• On December 10, 2021, during the first extraordinary session of the newly elected City Council, Davit Abuladze’s mandate as a City Council member from the Strategy Agmashenebeli party’s proportional list was terminated, and he was replaced by Koba Guruli.
• On April 15, 2022, the mandate of City Council member Levan Sanikidze from the Georgian Dream party was terminated based on his personal statement. He was replaced by Jemal Bibileishvili. 
• During the December 28, 2022 session, the Kutaisi City Council, terminated the mandate of Besik Bregadze, a majoritarian City Council member from the UNM party, based on its rules of procedure. According to the City Council, Bregadze did not attend the meetings of the City Council, commissions and factions for six months. He appealed against the City Council’s decision in court, but the proceedings were later terminated. Mikheil Giorgadze from the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party was elected as a new member of the City Council in the spring 2023 by-elections. He ran unopposed.
• On April 27, 2022, Jemal Bibileishvili became the deputy chairman of the Georgian Dream faction. On January 25, 2023, Manana Chikhladze took this position.
• On May 25, 2022, Bakari Makharadze resigned from his position as deputy chairman of the Georgian Dream faction. Merab Chokhonelidze and Beka Kebuladze left the Georgian Dream faction on December 15, 2022, based on their personal statements.
• On November 1, 2022, Grigol Shushania was replaced by Giorgi Kiladze as Chairman of the UNM faction.
• Khatuna Arveladze left her position as Deputy Chairperson of the UNM faction on January 26, 2022. Ketevan Khurtsidze was elected to replace her at the same session.
• In September 2023, Davit Bakhtadze became the deputy chairman of the UNM faction, replacing Roman Kvachakidze.
• In November 2023, Darejan Pkhakadze left the UNM faction^[1].
• On December 11, 2023, seven City Council members left the UNM party. They joined Nika Melia's team but did not leave the faction. Two of the remaining five members, Khatuna Arveladze and Lasha Shalamberidze, were expelled from the faction, while the other three left voluntarily. The faction was then renamed the Progressive Platform and began its activities on March 27, 2024.
• On November 28, 2024, Irakli Kobakhidze announced the suspension of Georgia’s EU integration process. In response, large-scale protests demanding new elections and the release of illegally detained protesters began in various cities across the country. Kutaisi City Council members from the United National Movement and Ahali declared a boycott and stopped participating in City Council activities until their demands were met.
• On August 8, 2025, Irakli Shengelia resigned as chairman of the City Council but remained a City Council member.

Chapter 4. Oversight of Bodies Accountable to the City Council

Kutaisi Mayor Ioseb Khakhaleishvili resigned on July 15, 2024. He did not submit a performance report to the City Council, nor discuss the reasons for his decision.

• The Kutaisi City Council only heard the mayor‘s report once in four years, on January 31, 2024. Ioseb Khakhaleishvili resigned on July 15, 2024.
• During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council did not discuss a vote of no confidence in the mayor.
• During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council positively assessed the activities of City Hall services and heard reports from individual legal entities. City Council members addressed the mayor and City Hall officials with questions on various issues.
• The City Council also did not reveal any instances of misconduct in the mayor’s activities, or conflicts of interest and/or incompatibility of positions. According to the City Council, “there were no instances of incompatibility of positions/conflict of interest involving a City Council member during the reporting period.”
• The City Council did not establish a temporary working group. It also did not create a consultative body (council, committee, etc.) to study individual issues and prepare conclusions and recommendations.
• The City Council informs us that City Hall representatives systematically participated in the meetings of the City Council, its commissions and factions to discuss individual issues, though statistics on their participation were not provided.

The Kutaisi City Council did not discuss the issues raised in the 2022 State Audit Office report concerning the performance of the Kutaisi Municipality in 2019-2020. This report largely repeats the findings of Transparency International Georgia’s research, namely:

• The State Audit Office determined that a company belonging to a business partner of Kutaisi Deputy Mayor Yuza Ugulava participated in Kutaisi municipal tenders, creating a conflict of interest. We wrote about this in a 2021 study.
• The State Audit Office also identified shortcomings in the management of Parking Service LLC. Transparency International Georgia has talked about this issue for years and demanded the abolition of this unprofitable LLC.
• Transparency International Georgia has also been publishing information about municipal expenditures and advocating for the effective use of funds for years.

Chapter 5. Gratuitous Transfer of Property to the State

During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council adopted 11 decrees on the free transfer of municipal property to the state. The following were transferred to the state:

• Seven non-agricultural land plots in Kutaisi on the third lane of Youth Avenue for further transfer to the Ministry of Defense.

• Part of seven buildings on Mikeladze-Mevele Street No. 15a, in Kutaisi, for further transfer to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Abkhazia for GEL 1, to improve their living conditions.
• Real estate in Kutaisi on the second lane of Nikea, north of No. 15a, for subsequent transfer to the LEPL Internally Displaced Persons, Ecomigrants and Livelihood Agency.
• Real estate in Kutaisi, on the first lane of Youth Avenue, No. 14a, for subsequent transfer to the Ministry of Defense of Georgia.
• Non-agricultural land plot located west of Irakli Abashidze Avenue, No. 32a, for subsequent disposal.
• Non-agricultural land plot in Kutaisi on Nikea Street, No. 20, for subsequent transfer to the LLC Basketball Academy Dola, with an equitable servitude right for 49 years.
• Non-agricultural land plot on Irakli Abashidze Avenue, No. 22a, in Kutaisi, including the building N1 located thereon, for subsequent transfer to the State Security Service with perpetual use rights.
• A “MERCEDES-BENZ” bus for subsequent transfer to LLC “Football Club Torpedo Kutaisi” for use.
• Non-agricultural land plot located at 85 Tamar Mepe Street in Kutaisi, with building N1 located thereon, for the purpose of relocation.
• Non-agricultural land plot located near N2 Hermann Gmeiner Street in Kutaisi, including buildings N1-N5 located thereon, for the purpose of further transfer to LLC “Football Club Torpedo Kutaisi” for use in the form of gratuitous usufruct, for a period of 10 years.
• “TOYOTA-PRADO” car for the transfer to the Chiatura Municipality City Hall.

The current practice of municipalities transferring property to the state contains a number of flaws. Local governments should make decisions independently regarding the property they own. The transfer of municipal property for charitable or other purposes should be the sole responsibility of the self-government, without the participation from the central government.

Chapter 6. Citizen Engagement in the City Council’s Activities

According to the information provided by the Kutaisi City Council, it ensures citizen involvement in its activities:

• Ensures citizens’ attendance at the meetings of the Kutaisi City Council, its commissions and factions.
• Publishes information about City Council meetings within legal deadlines and notifies the media and civil society representatives about the City Council meetings via e-mail.
• Ensures that citizens can be received both in the City Council building and in the territorial bodies of administrative units.
• Broadcasts the City Council meetings on Rioni TV and the City Council’s Facebook page.

Chapter 7. Expenditures of the Kutaisi City Council

• During the reporting period, the Kutaisi City Council spent a total of GEL 5,537,410 on salaries.
• During the same period, no bonuses, awards, or supplements were given to officials. Only civil servants and contract-based office staff received bonuses and supplements, totaling GEL 237,415.
• According to the information provided by the City Council, its members and office staff spent a total of GEL 33,412 on business trips during the reporting period.

Recommendations

Today, when Georgia is experiencing a total decline in democratic standards, political polarization, and a severe weakening of the role of self-governments, which is clearly visible in the local self-government system, it is necessary to correct the systemic shortcomings at the legislative level and then implement them in practice in order to solve the problems existing in the Kutaisi City Council and the entire municipal system.

This requires: 

• To establish a legislative framework that ensures the independence of municipalities and their representative bodies - city councils.
• To strengthen mechanisms of balance, mutual oversight, and transparency at the local level.
• The City Council should be given formal and real levers to oversee and hold accountable the executive branch of government - City Hall.
• The City Council’s independence should be protected and guaranteed by legislation so that it can fully and effectively control the policies and administrative processes implemented by City Hall, free from political pressure or formal frameworks.

The aforementioned transformations will only be possible if a democratically elected parliament, which is based on pluralistic values, ​​creates legislation that is not aimed at protecting narrow party interests, but rather establishes citizen-oriented local self-government - transparent, accountable, and truly effective.