Why has Poverty Become a Privilege in Georgia and Whom Has the Government Assisted?

Why has Poverty Become a Privilege in Georgia and Whom Has the Government Assisted?

For a year now, the government has been speaking loudly about poverty reduction in the country and its program to assist those people who are extremely impoverished. The government praises its program highly and considers it a success. At the same time, many poor people openly state that this ‘successful’ program assists the rich more than the poor.

Otar Sesikashvili, head of the Kakheti Regional Coordination Centre for Social Aid and Employment, declares that “the poverty reduction program is the only ray of light in the lives of impoverished people.” According to him, anybody can participate in the program.

“Every Georgian citizen can apply to us and demand registration on the database. Then a special plenipotentiary representative of the agency will arrive at their permanent address, study their socio-economical conditions and fill out a special form – a family declaration. The declaration details all the members of the family and information about their living and demographic conditions are also given. The information is confirmed by the signature of the family member…” declares Otar Sesikashvili.

They state in the Kakheti Coordination Centre of the Social Aid Agency, that declarations are sent to central office, where according to a so called ‘poverty point calculation’, the ‘poverty points’ and allowances for families are estimated.

According to the declaration #177 of the Georgian government, passed on 13th of April 2006, the ‘poverty point limit’ was estimated at 40,001 points on the ‘poverty point scale’.

According to O. Sesikashvili, Kakheti head of the Coordination Centre, their office is only an intermediary in the chain and adopting the poverty point limit is not within the regional office’s competence. According to Sesikashvili, financial allowances will be released in September, before that a significant raising of the poverty point limit is expected.

“At this stage allowances are not being given as the government is about to raise the poverty point limit. Correspondingly, many more families might receive allowances…” declares O. Sesikashvili.

According to O. Sesikashvili, before they give the financial allowances, the population will receive medical care policies and electricity vouchers.

At first glance, everything appears to be done transparently and the declaration is also signed by anyone in the family, although the number of unsatisfied people is increasing day by day.

Family declaration form - a document that breeds suspicion amongst the population

The ‘family declaration’ is a document, filled in by a social agent together with a family member, according to which the family’s poverty level is estimated. Having answered the questions in paragraphs, B, C, D and E, the family member signs the document, approving its correctness. Despite such transparency, paragraph F in the declaration breeds suspicion, as it is filled in only by the social agent and is not discussed with the family member. 

Paragraph F is the part of the declaration which must be filled in only according to the agent’s visual observations. The section pays more attention to the agent’s ‘detective’ skills. His careful eye must observe the conditions of the curtains in the family (if they exist at all) and must also find out if they are old-fashioned or not, if they are in good condition or damaged. The social agent must observe the condition of the furniture in the house without asking anything to the family members. He must point out in paragraph F whether the family furniture is hand-made or not, modern or old-fashioned, in good or bad condition, etc... The attentive agent must not forget to look at the toilet and bathroom and observe the situation there: if there is soap, shampoo or toothpaste. The average condition of the family must be observed by the agent too. He is responsible for gauging whether the family is ‘extremely impoverished’, ‘impoverished’, ‘poor’ or ‘average’.

Most of the population has no idea about the existence of paragraph F in the declaration. They do not even know that the agent’s estimation of their family is a principal factor in calculating their allowance. Those ‘lucky people’ who are considered to be ‘extremely impoverished’ by the social agent have more chance to get an allowance, while the ones estimated as simply ‘impoverished’ are more likely to get over 40 thousand poverty points.

Otar Sesikashvili, head of Kakheti Regional Coordination Centre for Social Aid and Employment, does not cast doubt on his social agents’ competence and declares that “their observations cannot be biased” 

“I do not cast doubt on a social agent’s competence and cannot imagine that any of them make any mistakes filling in the document. They have taken a special qualification’s course. If some violation is observed, we shall take measures by all means…” declares O. Sesikashvili.

Despite this declaration, complaints from the population stem from the bias of social agents. They express loudly their complaints against the social agents.

Why do they complain about the social agents?

Venera Mindeli, living in Telavi, says that she signed the declaration without looking through her answers. She thinks that “she made a mistake” as she “trusted the social agent too much”. Venera Mindeli declares that for this reason her family got 71,470 points and could not be included on the list of impoverished people.

“The social agent was asking me questions and I was answering them. I could not imagine that he could write down different information about my family. My mistake is that I trusted him too much…” states Mindeli.

According to her, the social agent pointed out in the declaration that her son, Levan Mindeli, works on a plot as a hired worker. Mindeli declares that her son’s health condition is critical and he is categorically forbidden from doing physical work. She even has a certificate proving the bad condition of her son’s health.

She does not agree with the observation made by the agent and declares that the house is in the poorest condition. “The walls are falling down; the floor is spoilt in every room; rain leaks in every room too. This house is now beyond restoration. The social agent wrote down that the house was in bad condition; however he could have written that it was in the worst condition. He somehow considered my family conditions not to be very bad…” states V. Mindeli.

Venera Mindeli and many other Telavi inhabitants insist that many families they know that are richer, have received below 40 thousand points. They refrain from naming them.

Fifty-one-year-old Tamaz Mefarishvili lives in the village of Nafareuli, in the Telavi region. He is a single person and says that he has not had electricity for a year already. He is unemployed. His house is in poor condition. The walls are crumbling and the rain leaks into his rooms. He has neither domestic cattle or poultry nor any income and his house is likely to be a ruin soon. The social agent however did not consider him to be an extremely impoverished person. His family got 50,500 points. So he was found to be not poor enough to receive the allowance. He asked for a list of those families who received points below 40,000 but his request was refused. Mefarishvili says that he was given a health policy and an electricity voucher.  

“I asked for the list of ‘impoverished’ families but somehow this list has turned out to be secret and they did not give it to me… the government compensates its sins by issuing the medical polices and vouchers…I do not need electricity vouchers at all, as I have not had electricity for a year…” declares T. Mefarishvili.

The family of Gulnaz Terterashvili, half of whom live in a basement, received 46,820 points. Despite the fact, that they don’t have anything at home and five members of the family live in a damp basement almost on the ground, the Terterashvilis also were not considered to be poor. Gulnaz Terterashvili insists that her family was left without an allowance because of a mistake by the social agent.

Telavi inhabitants, the Petskianis, also live in an ancient house that is about to fall down. Their family received 70,790 points. They complained against the social agent too.

“Secret List”

According to data from the Kakheti Regional Coordination Centre for Social Aid and Employment, 6785 families have applied for registration on the database so far. 8414 members of 4243 families have received medical polices (from families having received less than 10 thousand points).

The Kakheti Coordination Centre points out in a written document that 150 appeals have reached them so far. The governing board of the agency does not keep the names of people who appealed a secret either (enclosed with the document was the list of people who have appealed to the agency). Nothing is said however about the results which are likely to follow from the appeals in the document.

Despite our demands, the ‘Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre’ could not get any information about the families, who received less than 40,000 points, from the agency. Our request was responded to by the Kakheti Coordination Centre as follows: “The Kakheti Regional Centre of Social Aid and Employment cannot calculate or send such information from the program’s electronic version…”

The head of the Kakheti Coordination Centre declares that the aforementioned information can only be authorized by the central office of the agency.

Otar Sesikashvili also says that the Georgian government’s #177 declaration, on  April 13, 2006, according to which “the poverty point limit was estimated at 40,001, was abolished by the #104 declation on May 31 and now the poverty point limit is expected to be raised.”

“Because the ‘poverty point limit’ is expected to be raised, the central office of the Agency asked for the data we had back and we have handed it in. So we could not produce the list you wanted…” states O. Sesikashvili.

As for the discontent of the population, Otar Sesikashvili declares that their complaints are natural. “There are a lot of poor people in the country, though not everybody can receive allowances. The government assists the poorest, but those, left without it are naturally discontented…”

Veriko Kobiashvili, Telavi