Nepotism in Vani district

Giorgi Janelidze

Vani district administration fired several experienced specialists, who say that after reorganization the district governor employed his wife, sister and brother-in-law to work in the administration. 

Rusudan Abzhandadze worked in the Vani district administration since 1999. Before that she was a chairwoman of the district chamber of control. Former head of the financial service of the district administration Abzhandadze said the notification on dismissal was handed without any explanations. “I have never received any rebuke since 1999. I have 42-years working experience. Head of the culture service of the district administration asked me to transfer money to his office but I refused to transfer 5 000 lari without document that annoyed him. The district administration announced reorganization and fired people for the purpose of personnel reduction. Then they hired new people on the vacant places.”

One more experienced specialist was Lali Sulaberidze, who was also fired. She was head of the office in the Vani district administration in 2006-2012. In 2012 she was appointed to the position of the deputy director of the noncommercial legal entity Cooperation of Kindergartens. In 2014, after the contract term expired, new contract was not signed with her. “The new director fired me. 25 persons were fired as a result of reorganization but in 2015 they hired twice more – 51 people.”

Lali Sulaberidze said there are the district governor’s relatives among new employees: governor’s wife is the human resources inspector in the Cooperation of Kindergartens; his sister is head of the office and brother-in-law is head of the culture service in the administration.

We went to the Vani district administration office to find out situation. I was told the governor Zaza Khurtsidze was on a working meeting in one of the villages. His authoritative representative met us who said we were asking “groundless and silly” questions. The man, who did not introduce himself, went into the governor’s working room and closed the door behind him. Later on, we found out that the governor was in the building at that moment but he did not meet us. Zaza Khurtsidze did not answer our phone calls and messages on the phone.

“Authoritative public servants, who could answer our questions, did not meet us in the district administration during working hours. After the new governor was elected, he conducted reform and fired several persons. Meeting these people convinced us that new people were recruited from the relatives and friends of senior officials, and they did not respect the professionalism and relevance of employees,” lawyer of Human Rights House Tbilisi Eka Kobesashvili said.