Former NBG Governor Roman Gotsiridze says that the issue of NBG's independence has worsened further. He stated this in an interview with TV-program "Analytics".
It should be noted that for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the issues that became a prerequisite for the program's suspension was the independence of the NBG. Among other things, the IMF emphasized that there were more executive members on the NBG board than non-executive members. As a result of the change, this issue was regulated.
According to Roman Gotsiridze, the new composition of the board has further exacerbated the challenge of independence, therefore this cannot be considered as a solution to the problem from the IMF's perspective.
"The National Bank's board was staffed with former members of the National Bank and government who were experienced in executing and being obedient to government orders. Therefore, the board became even more submissive to Ivanishvili's clan and the government, losing even more independence. Moreover, Natia Turnava herself earned the position of National Bank President through services rendered to Ivanishvili. Therefore, today the National Bank is in a much worse state in terms of independence than even the unstaffed National Bank that had a temporary manager. Consequently, the independence aspect of the NBG will be a serious problem," Roman Gotsiridze said.
In his assessment, "no one will start a new program with this government."
