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Miscarriages of the anti-crisis plan – who and why was left beyond the state’s support

October 27, 2020
 
Manana Vardiashvili 

On April 24, 2020, the Government of Georgia presented the Anti-Crisis Plan to mitigate the harm caused by the COVID-19 related pandemic. To implement the plan, the GoG allocated 3, 5 billion GEL from the state budget. In the frame of the project “Free Legal Advocacy and Human Rights Monitoring after the Coronavirus Pandemic”, the Human Rights Center studied the effectiveness of the anti-crisis plan of the GoG and observed several gaps in it. 

“Faulty procedure – “an employee depends on the kind will of his/her former employer to get a compensation from the state or not.”

Pursuant to the GoG’s decision, starting from May 2020, those people, who lost jobs during the state of emergency established throughout the country to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, could get 200 GEL monthly allowance during 6 months (total 1200 GEL). The state assisted those people too, who were sent on unpaid vacations because of the pandemic-related restrictions. 

According to the official reports, 350 thousand individuals lost jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 460 million GEL was allocated to assist them. Nevertheless, many people, who lost jobs, were left beyond this support. 

J.R from Gori could not get 200 GEL allowance from the State though he was fired from a shop of the Ltd Daily in April 2020. 

“J.R was fired during the state of emergency. However, he still could not get the 200 GEL compensation from the state. In order to get the compensation, the employer shall send his/her data to the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finances. The problem is that there are no regulations which obliges the former employers to send the data to the Ministry: if the employer does not send the data of the former employee, no sanctions or penalties will be imposed on him/her for that. This is a faulty procedure: nowadays, a former employee depends on the kind will of the former employer whether she/he gets the compensation or not,” said the HRC lawyer Aleksi Merebashvili. 

Human Rights Center petitioned the Ltd Daily to send the data of J.R to the Ministry of Finances but all in vain. 

Afterwards, the HRC petitioned the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finances. The organization requests the ministry to pay 200 GEL compensation to J.R. The application was enclosed with the extract from the bank, which shows that Ltd Daily was paying salary to him from February 2020. 

HRC legal analyst Lazare Jibladze said that majority of the employers, mostly the small business owners, hide their income not to pay taxes. Therefore, if they send accurate information to the Revenue Service, they will be fined. For that reason, they do not provide the Revenue Service with the full information. “With this decision, the State placed both the employers and the employees in an awkward situation – the employers will not voluntarily send the data about their employees and the latter do not apply to the Revenue Service not to harm the former employer; and now we have this result. Furthermore, some companies, in March 2020, registered the honorarium paid for extra jobs as monthly wages for what thousands individuals could not get allowances,” Lazare Jibladze said. 

200 GEL allowances for the children under 18 – the aid which many children could not get

In the frame of the anti-crisis plan, the State allocated single allowance of 200 GEL for all the children and adolescents under the age of 18. 

According to the official data, there are estimated 280 000 children and adolescents in Georgia. The State allocated 170 million GEL to pay the compensations. 

To get the 200 GEL aid, the parents had to fill out easy application forms on the website daxmareba.moh.gov.ge. However, many parents could not register their children. 

N.Ts from Senaki municipality have three underage children. She managed to register two of her children on the website but could not register the third one. 

“N. Ts several times applied to the Senaki municipality Social Service Agency for help but has not received any answer from them yet. HRC has already petitioned the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Healthcare and Social Defense of Georgia and requested to assist N.Ts to register her third child on the website. Other citizens also applied to us for help with the same problem. Because of technical problems of the website of the Ministry of Healthcare, many parents could not register their children,” HRC lawyer Ana Chapidze said. 

The organization is waiting for the answer from the Ministry of Healthcare. 

Farmers were left with the preferential diesel fuel 

In the frame of the anti-crisis plan, the GoG offered diesel fuel to all farmers for lower prices, who own land with the space between 0.25 hectares and 100 hectares. 

The GoG established the threshold for the fuel recipients: farmers with 1 hectare of land could purchase only 150 liters of the fuel. 

The GoG presented another requirement to the farmers to get the allowance – they could get the allowance only for the registered lands. Those, who had not registered the land by the time the program was launched, could register it by the end of the year – PM Giorgi Gakharia stated. Those farmers, who will register their lands by the end of the year, will also get the 200 GEL vouchers. 

The Ministry of Agriculture selected Socar Georgia Petroleum as a company to provide the farmers with the cheap fuel. 

“Many farmers could not benefit from these vouchers,” HRC lawyer Eka Lomidze said. “We were in Tsalka municipality, where local farmers told us that the petrol stations of the Socar are located far from their villages and it was useless for them to travel there and buy the cheap fuel.”

The pre-condition to have the lands registered in the Public Registry was another barrier for the land-owners. As a rule, most peasants own several smaller plots together. Their registration in the Public Registry is a costly procedure. 

HRC addressed the Government of Georgia with a special statement with regard to the state subsidies and related problems. 

The statement reads that the agriculture anti-crisis plan of the Government of Georgia failed to eradicate the problems and left many farmers without aid, though they needed the support from the state most of all. 

HRC also offered concrete recommendations to the GoG and called on them to take into consideration the individual problems and needs of different groups when developing the draft documents for anti-crisis measures, and to envisage the most acceptable and simple procedures for taking the steps to implement the activities of the social aid. 

Human Rights Center implements the project with the financial support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia. The project aims to identify and raise awareness about possible human rights violations during and after the COVID-19 related state of emergency in Tbilisi and in 5 regions of Georgia – Shida Kartli, Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Imereti and Samegrelo. 

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