Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Kutaisi Drivers Have Joined the Ranks of the Unemployed

December 5, 2007

Kutaisi has been without trolleybuses for ten months. One hundred employees of the enterprise, with a history spanning a half-century, have been unemployed for ten months and can only hope for positive changes to their situation. The problems faced by trolleybus drivers stems from the 1.5 million lari debt the Kutaisi trolleybus department owes to the state. Several drivers of the Kutaisi trolleybus operation have sought out the Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi Office for help.

Robert Sichinava, driver: “I have been unemployed for ten months and everybody in town knows it. We were cut off because of the Department’s debt, accumulating since the communist regime. Since the new government came into office we have not added to the debt, but won’t allow us to work because of the amount still owed. The present authorities do not need anything from the communist period or from Shevardnadze’s time, so why should they demand their debts? If we could afford to pay that money we would not have bothered City Hall or any other body. However, those who can help do not pay any attention to us. We unsuccessfully applied to the head of the Department of Transportation for help. They already abolished the trolleybus service in Tbilisi, but those drivers were offered other jobs. I have been working here for 22 years. There are people who have a longer history with the job than even I do. Where can I be employed now? Why should I look for a vacancy somewhere else when it is possible to resume our operation with even the smallest amount of support?”

Gari Tsereteli, the engineer-in-chief of the trolleybus service, spoke about the technical compliance and readiness for redeploying the trolleybuses: “We have twenty trolleybuses that are ready to start work. When they abolished the trolleybus service in Tbilisi we were presented with an additional 15, non-functioning trolleybuses. We have two special cars that care for the technical compliance of the trolleybus lines. Thus, the enterprise is ready for future activities.”

Gocha Okropirashvili, the chairman of the Trade Union: “On September 17th, 2007, we restored trolleybus # 7 and its route. Two months later, we were explicitly warned to stop work, which we did. Our four trolleybuses are still standing at the end of Tabukashvili Street, waiting for a new order to start running. They say our electricity was cut because of unpaid bills, but a new power company has entered our city and have forgiven our old debts. All current bills are up to date. Consequently, our problems lie more with the authorities than with the power company.”

When the trolleybuses stopped running, residents of Tabukashvili Street collected signatures to demand the restoration of the trolleybus lines. Nothing came of their appeals. The new minibus #52 runs along the same path that trolleybus # 7 did. Residents think the reason for the abolition of public trolleybus transit was the introduction of mini-buses in the city. Members of Kutaisi’s socially excluded population are also requesting that the trolleybuses be brought back.

Valia Kuzanova, resident of Tabukashvili Street: “We need the trolleybuses. I cannot afford to pay 30 tetri as I have neither pension nor any kind income. It was easier for me to pay ten tetri. People need it but nobody thinks about it. I am disabled and the trolleybuses were the only transport I had. They worked well and ran until late evening, unlike the buses which stop working earlier in the evening. We have appealed to City Hall and they promised that they would not abolish the service. This promise has not been kept.”
  
Gulnazi Dvalishvili, resident of Tabukashvili Street: “Most people who live on this street are socially excluded people. Not all of us can afford to pay thirty tetri for transport. We now have to walk up to the park since the trolleybuses are not running. We can’t usually even get on the mini-bus when it comes because of overcrowding.”

The Kutaisi trolleybus service always depended on state subsidies which Gocha Kvernadze, the chairman of the Supervisory Council of the former JSC, does not deny. Kvernadze gives a different explanation of “debt accumulation.”

“During the tense situation in the country,” Kvernadze said to the HRIDC, “people found it hard to get around, so the government allowed us to work with all kind of conditions to serve the people. They did not make us pay for our electricity use, so debt accumulated and combined with fines larger that the original debt itself. The initial debt of 250,000 lari and together with the fines levied on it amounts to 700,000 lari. The electricity was then cut off. The current situation has the price of fuel increasing rapidly, which in turn results in an increase of the transportation fee. We will manage to work at half price to keep the fees on other means of public transport low.”

Dato Chakvetadze, specialist–in-chief of the Kutaisi City Hall Infrastructure and Transport Department is considered by drivers to be the greatest opponent of restoring the trolleybus serivce, a claim Chakvetadze himself denies. His explanation of the current situation is quite different.

“This enterprise always depended on the state subsidies,” Chakvetadze said in a conversation with the Human Rights Center. “Sixteen months ago, we asked the trolleybus service to provide our department with the business plan for the development of the enterprise. We did not demand them to prepare a plan to grow the service because I considered it to be absurd at that time. We wanted to see a plan that planned for the employees’ futures so that they would be employed and provide for their families once the service was abolished. It must be pointed out that the enterprise does not belong to the city. It is under the umbrella of the Agency for Transport Enterprises Management. Consequently, neither our department nor Kutaisi City Hall was responsible for making such decisions. As for the subsidies, which allowed the trolleybus service to run as it had, the city budget can no longer provide such funds.”

Chakvetadze also said that there are several serious factors hindering the restoration of the Kutaisi trolleybus service. The debt to the state budget the service has accumulated is a large issue, as is the service’s property currently under sequestration by the tax inspectors and the exemption of trolleybuses from the city transport system. 

“Even if they have settled their problems with the financial police and tax inspectors, Chakvetadze continued, “they will not be inserted in the transport system of the city and will not be able to run. Their problems are like chains connected with each other. There is no other way to pay their debts nothing more that can be restructured. If they had taken the measures to resolve their problems a bit earlier, they could have been discharged from their debts in other ways. They could have established a branch company, which we cannot do. The board of their enterprise could have, but I cannot teach them to work.”

As for the new mini-bus itinerary along Tabukashvili Street, Chakvetadze stated that there is nothing illegal in it. Mini-bus # 52 won the tender from the city and was confirmed by the city administration. The new itinerary does not affect the trolleybuses at all because they haven’t run in Kutaisi for ten months.

Chakvetadze considers that the board of the Kutaisi Trolleybus service wants to create a scapegoat in him, which only “demonstrates their disability to respond to their employees.”

It will soon be found out whether Chakvetadze has any kind of personal interest in hindering the work of the trolleybuses in Kutaisi. Today, the drivers from Kutaisi join the large army of unemployed people. Socially excluded residents of Tabukashvili Street and suburbs of the city will have to walk long distances.

Lela Khidasheli, Kutaisi

News