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The Environmental Ministry Does Not Pay Off Debts

May 14, 2007

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Seventy-one-year-old Suliko Khurtsidze worked at the Kutaisi Hydro Meteorological Observatory for 29 years. He acted as a director for the Observatory for the last ten years. In the middle of December in 2005, employees of the observatory were told to sign resignation letters because tests were going to be held. In fact, no examinations were held at all.

By the New Year, the Minister sent an order of dismissal to Suliko Khurtsidze and 115 more employees of the Observatory. Since those people had not worked under a contract lately, after their dismissal they could not receive compensation that should have equaled two months’ salary. Besides this, former employees of the Observatory did not receive several months of salaries for 1998-2000. 

In this case, the former director shared the fate of his colleagues and Khurtsidze remained without compensation and his old salary. In June 2006, he appealed to the Kutaisi Civil Court and demanded his salary of 1999-2000 and compensation on dismissal. The court satisfied his first demand but refused to compensate him for his dismissal.

The Court decision was immediately sent to the Georgian Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. In August, Khurtsidze visited the Ministry himself where he was told that the decision was already received and that it was sent to the Hydro Meteorological Department for execution.

“I visited the department and met the lawyer, Shorena Iosebidze, who was rude to me. She considered the court decisions illegal and said that her office did not intend to follow it. Thus I was kicked out from the department where I had worked 29 years,” said Khurtsidze.

After that, the suitor visited the Kutaisi Civil Court again where he received an executive act and traveled back to Tbilisi. This time he went to the Executive Bureau within the Ministry of Justice. On January 23 2007 the Ministry of Justice issued warning letters on the Ministry of Finances and the Environmental Ministry. Khurtsidze delivered those letters to the Ministries himself but there has been no action, yet. Last week, Khurtsidze applied to the Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi office and asked their assistance in finding justice in bureaucratic system.

As it has become clear, since the Hydro Meteorological Office and Observatory was put in charge of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the employees of those institutions worked under one-year-contracts. Thus, employees were gradually reduced as their contracts expired. Early in 2005 only 189 employees worked in the western part of the department; early in 2006, their number was reduced to 75, and this year, only 28 people remained as a result of the reorganization.

After the reorganization, the status of the Kutaisi Hydro Meteorological Observatory was changed and now it is the Kolkheti Branch for Monitoring and Forecast Center. The head of the center, Avtandil Kvachakidze, says that “the activities carried out in our system for the last three years caused the degradation… of the system. People, who sacrificed their lives to the field for many years were fired without any explanation. In addition, they were not paid salaries the Ministry owed them. Former employees still visit us, and we fail to explain them the situation properly.”

Since the state started to pay off the debts on salaries and pensions to its citizens, meteorologists from Kutaisi hoped they would also be paid off. However, the debt, which amounts to 500-600 lari for each employee, has not been settled, yet.

That sum is quite important for the fired people. Most of them live in various districts of the western Georgia and cannot travel to Kutaisi very often, and they especially cannot go to Tbilisi to demand their salaries.

Although Suliko Khurtsidze tried to receive his salary through the court, he had to travel to Tbilisi several times, and in doing so, he has already spent the 507 lari he should have received.

As for former employees for the above-mentioned institution, who are from Tsageri, Lentekhi, Bakhmaro or Alpani districts, they do not hope to get their money at all. The number of these people is nearly 200.

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

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