Whose Is Water? (The End)

Journalist for the Human Rights Center got in touch with Vasil Maghlaferidze, the President’s Representative to the Mtskheta-Mtianeti Region to find out the situation.(here is an interview, the style is followed).

Journalist: Mr. Vasil, do you remember the license issued on Tskhra Tskaro and subsequent controversy on obtaining the water in Gudauri?

Vasil Maghlaferidze: As far as I remember, the prosecutor’s office was investigating the case.
Journalist: There is your letter to the Minister where you stated that Seturidze had received the license on the basis of fraudulent documents. What did you mean by fraudulent documents?

V. M. I meant the fact that Kilikashvili had not signed the document.

-So you say that the Governor had not signed the document.

V. M. Yes, there was something like that.

-Did you discover any other violations?

V. M. The license was granted to Seturidze through some violations. Representatives of the Administrative Board told me that they had no information about the license. The Ministry had acted without their permission.

-Seturidze said that there were some financial interests in the business. More precisely he blamed representatives of the local authority for being eager to have a share in the business.

V. M. Just the opposite, we revoked his license and how could we have a share in it?

-Seturidze spoke about the period before the license was revoked.

V. M. It is very good that he is saying it. He would be charged with that person whom he was going to make a deal. When he was receiving the license illegally, he certainly was making some deal with somebody. If he says that it was a deal, let him say whom he had made an arrangement with.

-For example with you, didn’t you make similar arrangements with him?

V. M. What do you say? What kind of arrangements should I have done with him? What kind of share I was to demand?

-In water business.

V. M. It was not a business. Seturidze was doing strange things. He was not going to do anything serious. If he says that he was making a deal with somebody he should say his name and corresponding bodies will estimate the truth.
Journalist: If documents were fraudulent how could this person receive a license?

V. M. I cannot say anything. As far as I remember, Gudauri based hotels had some complaints about that person. He wanted to get hold of the water and make users pay money to him. More precisely, having used the water, hotels and population should have paid money to him. In fact he was thinking of himself and not of state budget. Do you think it is fair if a person appears and says that he wants to be the owner of the water? If you want to be a water supplier, you should run the whole system. Just imagine I took a license on a stream at the beginning of the village and make people pay for using it. He wanted to be such an owner.”

We got in touch with Gogi Kilikashvili to find out whether the signature was fraudulent or not.

-Mr. Gogi, did you mediate Seturidze to the Ministry?

Gogi Kirikashvili: No…They have lied to us. I have meditated him about the construction and then he changed something. He said that he was going to make some water-pipe.

-How did it happen? The document you signed stated that he wanted a license on obtaining the water and not on a construction.

G. K. I have not signed. Paata Chkareuli, my deputy signed the document. Later I wrote to the Environmental Ministry that the signature on the document was not mine and asked them to revoke it.

-Did not you punish your deputy for falsifying the document?

G. K. He does not work at the Administrative Board and how should I punish him? I do not know, perhaps he also was deceived.

Finally we applied to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. Although the chairman of Department for Licenses and Permissions was replaced, his substitution, Davit Machavariani answered our questions. We asked how an entrepreneur received a license if his documents were fraudulent. He answered that “At that time we could not check the documents. Then we found out from the Administrative Board that the documents were fraudulent. I want to say that as a rule we do not carry out an investigation on each applicant and we legally trust them and if later we discover some violation, we react on it according to the law. The same situation happened in this particular case too. The Administrative Board petitioned us and informed that the document they had sent was fraudulent. The document was signed by powerless person.”

-Could license be issued so easily?

D. M. What do you mean by ‘easy’? A letter was sent from the Administrative Board and was signed by the Deputy Governor. Then they told us that the governor was in office and his deputy did not have power to sign similar document. Consequently, the document was not valid.

-Under the law, mediation is not necessary when granting the license…

D. M. The law envisages the land owner’s agreement and in this case local authority was the owner.

-Have you heard anything about secret arrangements about water business?

D. M. He makes similar statements everywhere but I have no idea what kind of deals he is speaking about. That man can say anything but the point is how real his statements are.

The respondent said in his conversation with the journalist that he had not received any summons from the Supreme Court and consequently he does not know that the court hearing is earmarked at the court. Seturidze is not going to give in and is ready to appeal the European Human Rights Court.

Eka Bulua