Officials Do Not Want to Tighten Their Belts

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

“Kutaisi population should know what kind of “tightened belts” the members of district municipality board, they elected three years ago, were wearing. Some of them openly or in secret are leading their election campaign and do their utmost to remain in the government. They use administrative resources for personal purposes and waste state funds,” said members of the Kutaisi office of the Republic Party.

According to the Republic Party members, the “elected” officials benefited only for themselves from their three-year activities in the local authority. Their monthly income from bonuses and other benefits is equal to their monthly salary which is not very low at all.

“For example, I will discuss 2009 and say that in April (because of Easter Holiday) in May (Independence Day), in August (St. Mariam Day) and in December (New Year) together with their salaries, the members of the municipality board received bonuses equal to their salaries. Their salaries vary from 2 480 to 923 GEL (according to the position). Despite high salaries and bonuses, they were not ashamed to apply for financial allowances. In parallel to it, they do not reply to numerous petitions of their voters,” said Nato Katamadze, chairperson of the Kutaisi office of the Republic Party.

She added that the only care for the members of the municipality board is their personal interests and nothing more. They have purchased the most expensive mobile phones, they go abroad on business leaves very often, though the real purpose of their departure is only sightseeing, and huge sums were spent on unlimited number of mobile-cards.

In total, the local budget spent the following sums on the members of the municipality board: in 2006 – 17 670 GEL; in 2007 – 91 259 Gel; in 2008 – 168 003 GEL; in 2009 – 176 800 GEL.

“Kutaisi municipality board started functioning in December of 2006 and the chairperson started to worry about the voters in the same month. In the same month, he bought a mobile phone for 600 GEL from the district budget. In total, since December of 2006 till the end of 2009, 453 733 GEL were spent on the members of the municipality board “for execution their responsibilities”, while the appeals of the voters remain without reaction because of “lack of fund,” said Katamadze.

Republic Party members complained about the so-called safe articles in the Kutaisi budget which were designed for the comfort and welfare of the local officials.

Nowadays, the Republic Party members are protesting against the expenditure of 51 650 GEL on fuel by the members of the municipality board. They clarify: “They use fuel for 100 GEL per month not to mention the mobile-cards which are funded for their meetings with voters.”

The Human Rights Center interviewed people in order to estimate how close the members of municipality board are with their voters. Most of the interviewed people said that after the pre-election period (when the candidates met them and gave various promises) they have not seen them. The voters could not remember the names of the board members either.