Social Assistance: More Needed for Socially Excluded or for the Police?!

Nana Pazhava, Zugdidi

Aleksandre Kobalia, the Zugdidi District Governor may be facing impeachment due to marked gaps in how money from the budge of the Zugdidi District was spent. This will happen if the intention of Zugdidi body of Self-governance - Sakrebuli is accompanied by an order of the president of Georgia who had promised guarantees of immunity to the close ranks of the “political family” of Kobalias a long time ago. Sadly, the socially excluded people suffer from secret conflict between Zugdidi Sakrebulo and District Governor’s Office. The low-level of funding had been expected in the local budget for them. 

Probably it was a political decision to place the “Department for Labor, Public Health and Social Security, Veterans, Refugees and IDPs” of Zugdidi District Governor’s Office, and the venue was not in the Governor’s Office but in another building altogether. The majority of socially excluded people visit this department and apparently the Zugdidi High ranking officials did not wants to see so many people in District Governor’s office, so they solved the problem. 

It is a four-storied building where this Department is situated. There is a long queue of applicants for social assistance on the third floor. Hundreds of People are waiting for a one off payment of social assistance from the local government.

Zhuzhuna Makatsaria: “I come from the village of Gantiani, Gali District. I am IDP. I used to have the status of IDP. As an IDP I used to receive 50 GEL. As it was 66 GEL for socially excluded people, about 14 GEL more I decided to apply for the status of socially excluded person.  I received the status and used to receive this 66. However, then the IDPs aid was increased and I moved back to IDP status. Now I want to receive a single one off assistance of 50GEL for socially excluded people. I have been trying to receive this aid since May but all my efforts have been in vain. They say there is some misunderstanding and they have stopped granting this aid.”

Venera Jikia: “I live in Chakvinji. I am a mother of a large family. I have 4 grandchildren. I had to receive 100 GEL one payment of aid from the government when I delivered the fourth child as I was the mother of a large family. Now I am being told that the government does not have money and I will not be receiving this money.”

Lali Toria: “I am 79-year-old pensioner.  My sick daughter and I are only eating bread and onions. My daughter needs a heart surgery. We are starving; I don’t even have electricity. The electricity was cut off 3 months ago because we could not pay the bill. I had an electricity voucher but someone misappropriated my voucher. I received a 114 GEL bill but was unable to pay this bill and the electricity was then cut off. I expected to have received 50 GEL, a single one off assistance from the government. If I had this 50 GEL I could at least pay a part of the bill and then I would have electricity again. Then  I would start pay the rest of the bill little by little. I have been visiting the local municipality. However, they do not give me the money. I will sit in front of the Governor’s Office building and do not go anywhere until I receive the assistance.”

According too the decree of Zugdidi body of Self –Governance Sakrebulo dating February 26, 2008 380, 500 GEL was allocated from the local budget for social assistance. 20 000 GEL is anticipated for helping disabled people. According to the budget this amount was increased to 40 000 GEL. However, as the demand on this money was rather big, the local government stopped allocating single term assistance since April and mobilized all money for disabled people. As explained by a representative of the Social Department, they have tens of thousands of applications but no money to satisfy their demands.

One of the paragraphs of the budget is on allocating 20 000 GEL on the social security of WWII veterans. However, it turned out from the Social Department of Zugdidi Municipality that they spend this 20 000 GEL only for veterans’ funeral expenses. There are only few veterans left. If they had received 250 GEL it might prolong their lives for a bit more and would not have to be buried them.

Zugdidi based Association for Physically Disabled Women and the Mothers of Physically Disabled Children Dea says that 40 000 GEL is not enough for 5,000 disabled people.

Nino Kobalia, the representative of Dea: “Many people seek social assistance, many more than expected. The Municipality has allocated some money but it is still not enough.  50 GEL is rather mere amount of money. It can not possibly solve even the simplest of problems. Money must be distributed according to some other criteria. We consider it would be better if a Social Service or Rehabilitation Center was established in the Zugdidi Municipality. Much more people would benefit from such a center. However, if the budget looks more like a program, it would be possible to use any amount of money more effectively.”

Healthcare and social sphere was funded with 103,100 GEL this year. It is only 4 % of the total budget. This meager funding makes the social issues and their background that much graver. However, it is the central government’s prerogative to fund healthcare system and must be carried out by the Ministry of Labor, Healthcare and Social Security.

Aleksandre Kobalia has already increased the salaries for the employees of the Zugdidi Municipality Board instead of raising the funding level for healthcare and social field. According to the information of the Human Rights Center, the increased salaries at 50 % became the reason for the impeachment of the district governor. Nevertheless, officials from higher instances ordered members of the municipality board to keep quiet about district governor’s mistakes.

Reason for what appears as unreasonable and inefficient expenditures of budgetary funds in paying for the cost of law enforcement structures is a burden to the local budget. While 380, 500 GEL is apportioned for social field, 714 500 GEL was allocated for maintaining public order and security. 110, 000 GEL out of 714 500 GEL is to be spent on regional police personnel. Patrol police will spend only a mere 6,500 GEL and Department for Constitutional Security received 70, 000 GEL.

Based on the information requested by the Human Rights Center, it also appears that utility costs are high too. The regional police department has used electricity for 40 000 GEL and it was covered from the local budget. Other funds were spent on communal and office related expenses.

Patrol police managed to cover only communication bills with 5, 600 GEL which had been allocated to them from the Zugdidi district budget. Nevertheless, patrol police received 7 cars from Poti district budget under the personal order of Gorozia, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regional governor.

According to the Human Rights Center, Zaza Gorozia sent official letter to Poti mayor short time ago and requested to provide 182 000 GEL to cover financial expenses of regional police and the patrol police departments. One more car, “Toyota” is associated with the regional governor; in order to buy the car, Gorozia motivated one of the high-ranking officials to allocate for him 55, 000 GEL for the car, and this was done under duress.  The Human Rights Center continues its investigation all details regarding the issue.

Association of Disabled Women and Mothers of Disabled Children “Dea” implements the project “Society and Monitoring of Budget Project.” Within the project the association described the situation budget situation in details that was revealed during the implemented monitoring process. Madona Kharebava, the director of the “Dea”, states that while monitoring of the Zugdidi municipality budget in the first quarter of 2008, several violations were detected. However, unless these violations are improved, local financial system will not be able to function properly.

Madona Kharebava: “Most violations on local budget are caused from the policy of the central government rather than local authority. More precisely: 1) while assigning the authority to local authorities, the latter should be granted with all necessary funds that shall be spent on their expenses because in the conditions of their limited income local government cannot fund these authorities. Moreover, their own incomes are so limited that it is not enough to fund their exclusive responsibilities. 1) the central government should reduce its involvement in the activities of local government because giving orders from budgets to local self-governances cause unreasonable expenses.”

Representatives of the Association “Dea” speak about an additional problem that involves how society turns a blind eye, including the media, when it comes to how the government spends public funds.  Nana Pirtskhalava, editor of the newspaper “Kolkhuri Versia” and chairperson of the Association of Independent Journalists of Western Georgia, considers that low rating of the need for monitoring the budget is a result of less public interest. This tendency attributed to the low professionalism demonstrated by journalists, as they have demonstrated that they are unable or unwilling to report thoroughly such kinds of problems.

Nana Pirtskhalava: “The Municipality board should be itself interested in inviting journalists of independent media sources to attend the sessions when district budget is adopted. Such actions on their part would do much to introduce such issues to society in an impart manner. However, initial information about budget-planning is closed to the media, and especially to greater society – and most often stories will appear after the money has been spent. It is the municipality board that defines the priorities of the budget and these should be openly reported to media. Absence all these factors cast a dark light on whether the money is being properly spent or even squandered.”