Employees of Telavi Municipality Steal Humanitarian Food Assistance from Poor People

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

Free dining halls for socially excluded people function in almost every district, which was considered until recently as a social safety net.  The feeding of socially excluded people has been mainly funded from the local budgets. 1 GEL and 20 Tetris were spent on each person per day. Socially excluded people receive one loaf of bread and one pot of sauce without any meat; the dining halls have been unable to provide normal feeding to poor without charitable organizations helping them to make up the difference.  However, it turned out that the representatives of the local government have not been supplying donated humanitarian provisions to the intended destination.

On March 24, 2006 the Kakheti Regional administration received humanitarian provisions from Ekspo Georgia- a total of 3,450 portions. According to the Decree #18, dating back to  2006 the President’s representative in the Kakheti Region are instructed to provide these  provisions for redistributed among the charity dining halls of Kakheti Region. 610 portions were given to Telavi District. Nodar Paradashvili, head of Telavi District Organization Department received these portions based on an act  # 232 dated April 4, 2006, which had been issued by Gocha Mamatsashvili, interim Governor of the Telavi District.

According to the decree of President’s representative in Kakheti Region the Telavi District Governor’s Office was accountable for transferring the humanitarian food to charity dining halls. The Telavi District Governor’s Office and the administration of Telavi charity dining hall ought to have created a document, a special AKT proving that one side ( Telavi District Governor’s Office) actually transferred the 610 portions of humanitarian food to the other side (dining hall administration). However, there is no such AKT of transfer in existence.

“The dining hall for socially excluded and poor people has not received any kind of humanitarian food from the Telavi Municipality during that specified period of time. Therefore, we do not have any document which would otherwise prove that we actually received these provisions that you are asking us to supply,” states Eter Shashviashvili, accountant of the dining hall for socially excluded and poor people.

Nodar Paradashvili: “I took the humanitarian provisions we had received from Kakheti Regional Administration to an empty room which was situated on the ground floor of Telavi District Governor’s Office building. I was following the instructions of Gocha Mamatsashvili, interim Telavi District Governor. I do not know where these provisions were taken afterwards. I have not worked in Telavi District Governor’s Office since the summer of 2006.”

We found out that the food for socially excluded people had been kept in Telavi District Governor’s Office for several months, at least until April, 2007 Kakhaber Enukashvili, chairperson of Telavi Sakrebulo Standing Committee for Infrastructure, Agriculture and National Recourses took the 7 250 GEL value of food with the assistance of other people to a farm rented by Niko Enukashvili for the purpose of feeding shepherds and their dogs.

Kakheti District Prosecutor’s Office was informed about this in June 2007. A criminal case was launched on misuse of power. The investigation ascertained that the Telavi District Governor’s Office did not distribute the humanitarian food properly.

Lia Khuroshvili, a lawyer states that the prosecutor’s office should have charged Kakhaber Enukashvili and his associates, probably interim Telavi District Governor as for illegally misappropriating humanitarian assistance. However, nothing of the kind happened. The Kakheti District Prosecutor’s Office did not react on the crime committed by an official. Based on a reliable source, we can say that Tamaz Tabutsashvili, Kakheti District Prosecutor is concealing many crimes committed by governmental officials.

Kakhaber Enukashvili was promoted and moved to the position of the head of Kakheti Regional Foresty Division when Gocha Mamatsashvili became the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.