Lela Khechoshvili, Kakheti News Center
“Civil Institutionalism Development Fund” was established in the framework of the second wave of democratic reforms of the government in 2009. The Fund is funded from the reserve fund of the government and it aims to support non-governmental organizations. The journalistic investigation exposed that the grants were transferred to those organizations whose founders and directors were public officials, activists of the National Movement (the ruling party) or people close to the government.
“Civil Institutionalism Development Fund” was founded by the Ministry of Correction and Legal Assistance of Georgia.
1, 490 Million GEL for Grants
In 2009, the Fund announced two grant competitions. Both acting NGOs and initiative groups could participate in the competition. The competition did not have any priorities. The participants could submit the application on any topic. The Fund announced from the very beginning that they would pay most attention to the applications focused on the problems of the regions. 607 applications were submitted. 65 out of 531 of them were funded; and in the second competition 26 out of 76 projects were funded. The website of the Fund informs that 840 000 GEL was spent on grants in total. As a result of the first grant competition in 2010, the Fund funded 33 projects and spent 300 000 GEL on it. As a result of the second grant competition in 2010, 53 projects were funded and the budget allocated 350 000 GEL for it. In total, the state budget has transferred 1, 490 million GEL to the Fund to fund the grants.
We inquired about the organizations who received the grants from the Civil Institutionalism Development Fund in Kakheti region.
“Non-Public” Public Information
On July 11, 2010 we sent letter to the Civil Institutionalism Development Fund and asked the person responsible for the public information to provide us with the following public information: “the names, venue, duration and budget of the projects funded as a result of the first and second grant competitions in 2009 and the projects funded by the first grant competition in 2010; we also requested the name, status and address of the applicant, as well as the name of the head of the project or members of the initiative group who implement the project.”
In accordance to the statute of the Fund, the information about the winning projects is public. According to the same article, participation of non-profit legal entities and initiative groups in the competition is equal to their consent on making the information about their project public if they win the competition. Despite that, the executive director of the Civil Institutionalism Development Fund Lali Kipshidze refused us to release the requested public information in her letter on July 21, 2010.
“The Article 37 and 40 of the General Administrative Code of Georgia, which you mentioned in your letter, do not work for our Fund because the Civil Institutionalism Development Fund is not a public legal entity. Our legal status is private legal entity that entitles the Fund to independently decide how to provide the society with the information about their activities and what information to make public. The information, which we have already considered public, is uploaded on our website,” the letter stated.
The website of the Fund provides information only about the number of the registered applications according to the districts and project themes, the code of the winning projects, the project names and the names of the implementing organizations. If the applicants are initiative groups, the website does not provide any information of those groups which could assist us to estimate the identities of its members.
The Lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Tamar Kordzaia thinks that the refusal of the Civil Institutionalism Development Fund to release public information was groundless and illegal.
“The decision of the Fund is not legal and grounded. First of all, it should be noted that the Fund was established based on the resolution of the president of Georgia and it aims to support the development of public legal, or new initiative groups, communities and non-governmental sector; involvement of the civil society members in the resolution of political, social and economic problems; support of regional development and creation of the equalization programs through the active cooperation of the local governmental agencies and civil society and stimulation of their implementation. Consequently, creation of the fund with similar functions based on the normative act of the President of Georgia, regardless its form of existence, means that this fund serves public interests and acts as a public legal entity based on the normative act. Furthermore, the Fund is funded from the State Budget; more precisely, in 2009, 1 million GEL was allocated from the reserve fund of the government of Georgia to the Fund. So, the Fund is a public entity and is entitled to release the public information according to the General Administrative Code,” said Tamar Kordzaia.
Grants for “Our People”
According to the confirmed information, 6 projects were funded in the Kakheti region as a result of the first grant competition in 2009. “Gurjaani 1” is one of those organizations which received a grant from the Civil Institutionalism Development Fund. In reply to our official letter, the enterprise registration agency of the National Agency of Public Registration reported to us that the organization was registered on October 7, 2009 by the Telavi Tax Inspection. The legal address of the organization is Gurjaani, Vazha Pshavela Str. 6. The founder of the organization is Giorgi Macharashvili. The registration agency does not have more information.
According to the Ltd “Gurjaani Tekinproekt” (technical inventory bureau), a private house is located in Vazha Pshavela Str.6 and it belongs to Gela Megrelishvili. He is a specialist of civil-urgent situations and defense affairs at the Gurjaani district administration.
Gela Megrelishvili: “In summer of 2009, the head of the youth department at the Gurjaani district administration Temur Butsashvili told me that young people intended to register their organization and asked me to allow them to use the address of my house for the registration of the organization; I agreed him. I know Giorgi Macharashvili and there was no problem in it. He intended to teach computer programs to school children and adults for free.
-Where did you meet Giorgi Macharashvili, who is he?
- Davit Macharashvili was head of the culture department at the district administration and Giorgi Macharashvili is his son. After they won the project, I gave one room in my house to them. They brought tables but soon took them away; a room in Culture Center was given to them and they moved there.”
Despite many attempts, we could not meet Giorgi Macharashvili. The head of the department for youth affairs Temur Butsashvili promised us to send the list of those young people who learned computer programs for free in the framework of this project but we have not received the list.
The lawyer of the Human Rights Center Lia Khuroshvili, who monitored the municipal elections of May 30, 2010 and pre-election violations in Kakheti region, said that in April and May of 2010, Temur Butsashvili and Giorgi Macharashvili together with other young people organized various events in the support of the National Movement. She said Butsashvili and Macharashvili were particularly active on April 29, 2010 when they met the chairman of the parliament with several hundred young people with flags in Gurjaani Cuture Center when he introduced the candidates of the National Movement and single mandate candidates to the local population.
One more project, funded by the first grant competition in 2009 was “Future Generation.” In the framework of the project, the trainings were to be organized for the teachers of Tsnori public school # 3 in Sighnaghi district. As a result of the training, the teachers had to obtain new skills of working on fundraising for the school development and improvement of the school life. The project was implemented by the NGO “Lampari 2009”. According to the enterprise registration agency of the National Public Registration Agency, the organization has 6 founders most of whom are school teachers. In 2009, the chairperson of the organization was the school director Lela Pkhovelishvili.
The same organization won one more project “I as a Citizen” in the first grant competition in 2010. When getting the fund, the director of the organization was replaced by Tinatin Pkhovelishvili according to the enterprise registration agency. A member of the board is Temur Balarjishvili. Tinatin Pkhovelishvili works at the Sighnaghi municipal board; she is a specialist of the bailiff and procedural commission. Temur Balarjishvili is the head of the Sighnaghi district education resource-center.
The municipal board gave reference to the initiative group from Kvareli district which participated in the first grant competition of the Fund and submitted the project-proposal “Integration of Georgian and non-Georgian Youth in Kvareli District”. After winning the competition, the members of the initiative group established an NGO “Multinational Youth Center.”
Zaza Davitadze, head of the center: “7 more people founded the organization. My acquaintances assisted me to prepare the project-proposal. The Kvareli municipal board gave recommendations to us and they were co-funder too. They gave us office and assisted to pay communal bills too. The project lasted 6 months. In the framework of the project we organized championships of mini-football, volleyball and wrestling. We also organized outings.”
The sport and culture events in the framework of the project were mostly organized before the municipal elections of May 30, 2010. The member of Kvareli municipal board Alik Aliev said that the chairman of the municipal board, officials of the district administration and the members of the National Movement also attended the events; they used to assign awards to the winning participants. “The municipal board was referent of this project. I assisted them to write the project proposal. The municipal board gave them the office in the culture house in Chikaani. After the project finished, the local authority assists them financially,” said Aliev.
Zaza Davitidze was member of Kvareli district election commission from the National Movement in the municipal elections of May 30, 2010.
Lia Khuroshvili, lawyer of the Kakheti office of the Human Rights Center: “Establishment of GONGOs in the regions has several reasons. Recently, the representatives of the organizations participated in various meetings and when we state that human rights are breached, properties are seized from citizens, administrative institutions block public information, etc, they will try to claim the opposite and support the government. Besides that, during next elections the ruling party will be able to send enough observers from the local organizations.”
Position of the Fund
The website of the “Civil Institutionalism Development Fund” informs that the supervisory council is decision-making body at the Fund. Davit Aprasidze – dean of the philosophy and social science faculty at the Tbilisi Ilia Chavchavadze State University – is the chairman of the supervisory council. In 2008 Aprasidze was anchor of the program “Day Comment” on the Public Broadcasting. The members of the Supervisory Council are Natia Anastasiadi (former spokesperson of Dimitry Shashkin (minister of education and science)), Magdalina Anikashvili (MP, Christian Democrat Party), Chiora Taktakishvili (MP, National Movement), Irakli Kipshidze (deputy director of the educational and scientific infrastructure development agency at the Ministry of Education and Science).
-Why does the Fund transfer grants only to the trustful initiative groups who establish NGOs?
“How can I know that the applicant is the son of the head of the culture department at the district administration or employee of the municipal board? Should I ask the implementers to provide the documents whose sons/daughters they are? An employee of the municipal board can also implement the project as well as the teacher. However, it is interesting whether the employee of the municipal board had indicated in the application form his working place. We do not give grants to public agents. Our foundation supports the projects which promote cooperation of governmental and non-governmental sectors,” said Davit Aprasidze.
-In the abovementioned three cases the events were organized before the municipal elections with the cooperation of the National Movement and for their support. If the Fund aims to develop the non-governmental sector, why does not it monitor the expenditure of the budget sums? What are the results of the project and why are not the monitoring results posted on your website?
-I do not deny that similar shortcomings occurred; other political parties also participated in those events. The grant competition was held before the pre-election campaign. The point is, the Fund should monitor the project implementation and according to the information provided to the Supervisory Council, the personnel of the Fund carry out the monitoring indeed. When it is time to prepare the report, we will raise this problem.”
The article was prepared within the project “Investigative Group of Journalists in Kakheti” with financial support of the “Eurasian Partnership Foundation” in the framework of the EU funded project - “Strengthening the Media’s Role as a Watchdog Institution in Georgia”.
The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the Kakheti News Center and cannot be taken as to reflect the views of the European Union and Eurasian Partnership Foundation.
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