Nearly 200 Impoverished Families Left Without Their Family Allowances

 Nearly 200 families have been left without the social (family) allowances they normally recieve from a state program. The lack of payment is as a result of the incompetence and carelessness of the officials at the Passport Department within the Lagodekhi Region’s Passport,Population and Civil Statements Registration Service.

The aforementioned ‘reformed’ service office has issued passports and identity cards with the same numbers to different people at different times. As a result of the duplications, the government has refused to aid socially excluded people who have duplicate numbers on their cards.

Giorgi Iashvili, head of the Lagodekhi Region’s Administrative Board of Social Services pointed out in a conversation with ‘Human Rights Centre’, that he has applied to the Passport Department to resolve the problem and demanded that they fix their mistakes, however his efforts have been in vain. He told us: “1400 impoverished people are registered with our office. The State Agency of Employment and Aid demands we send the personal documents of these people, which resulted in apportioning allowances for 900 people. The rest of them weren’t given any aid. As it became clear, they were left without allowances because of the mistake made by the passport department. Their identity card numbers were duplicated - that means two people had the same number. Thus we have applied to the passport department and demanded they fix their mistakes immediately. They replied that those people are to be issued identity cards a second time. This will take a certain amount of time and effort. Now they cannot be given their June-July allowances. They cannot receive the money until they produce new identity cards.”

The incompetence of the regional Passport Services Department has annoyed the people of Lagodekhi. They blame Zuar Natroshvili, head of the Service, for the incident and appeal against him in the regional court. “Being appointed to their high positions, they should know at least the bare minimum. How can two or three people have the same numbers? Everybody avoids the blame and instead of apologizing, they insult us, shout and throw the documents back at us. Are they qualified staff? They all say the same thing. The only way out for us is to get new cards - they say. Most of us are feeble people. The government has taken our social situation into consideration and has given us vouchers for electricity and medical aid cards from the Ministry of Healthcare. Some of them have Interior Ministry Pension Certificates and receive this at the bank. Our personal numbers are fixed in every document. It will take a certain amount of time and money to change all of them – and that we cannot afford. We are devoid of all our allowances at present,” the Lagodekhi people say, unable to help their anger and ask those higher up the ranks for help.

We applied to Zura Natroshvili to see if he would comment on the mistakes made by colleagues at the Passport Department.

- Mr. Zura how did it happen that duplicate numbers were found on several identity cards issued by your office?

- The number on the cards reached 699 on the registration journal. Registrar Lali Bochorishvili continued the numbering from 600 instead of 700. It is quite a common occurrence. There are also cases, such as when the number fixed in the identity card of Manana Gogoladze, living in Lagodekhi, was also given in the passport issued to Vugar Gasanov, living in Uzuntala. What can I do with such a case?

-So do you avoid responsibility?

-I have no dealings with it. Go and blame Bochorishvili! [Lali Bochorishvili was appointed as a registrar in the Passport Department on the recommendation of the Lagodekhi National Party – author].

-Mr. Zura, you are Bochorishvili’s boss. Do the people have to look for her, or are you obliged to punish her regarding the incident?

-You are talking nonsense.  What do you want to hear from me? Am I being interrogated? I have no dealing with it. People must change the cards and that is all!

This one incident is enough to prove the disorder and many violations that exist in the Lagodekhi region’s Passport Department. On the 20th March 2005, Nino Gachechiladze, killed in the Lagodekhi district village of Ananuri, was found with the identity cards of her sister, Thea Gachechiladze, and Sophio Kapanadze from the village of Gvimriani on her. They had been issued by the Lagodekhi Region’s Passport and Population Registration Department. It was found out later that the identity card issued to Sophio Kapanadze belonged to Maia Khakhilova, living in the Gurdjaani District. It must be noted that nobody was charged for these violations.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti