Marika Vacharadze, Khoni
About 1 500 IDPs live in the territory of the so-called military settlement in Khoni. 17 four-storied buildings are located in the area; their reconstruction started in March of 2008. The municipal development fund ordered their reconstruction. Three building companies won the competition. Building company “Axis” took responsibility to renovate 4 residential buildings; “Dagma, Ltd” – had to renovate 5 buildings; and New Energy had to reconstruct 8 buildings. All three companies are registered in Tbilisi and they have their central offices in the capital. Their representatives supervised the ongoing activities in Khoni.
400 000 GEL was allocated on “Axis” for the reconstruction of four four-storied buildings; “Dagi Ltd” received 1 600 000 GEL and New Energy – 2 800 000 GEL. However, all three companies received additional funds for the reconstruction of facades and entrances.
As soon as reconstruction activities started, an initiative group of 13 active IDPs was set up in the settlement. Member of the initiative group Jokia Kopaliani said: “Building Company “Dagi” was the first to launch reconstruction in the IDP settlement. Then, New Energy appeared who reconstructed 8 buildings and Axis started its activities a bit later. We studied the quality of the ongoing activities time-by-time. The quality of the implemented job was very poor. “Dagi Ltd” was the first to finish its activities and left part of the job undone. We called the representatives of the company back and they started to improve their mistakes. However, they still left one part of their activities undone in the buildings. Company “Axis” did the best job among those three companies. They had some problems only in the building # 100. As for the New Energy, we examined the buildings together with their representatives; the officials of the municipal development fund also attended the examination process. The company had to improve the shortcomings we had discovered but they did not do it and left the settlement without finishing the reconstruction. They made many mistakes. For example, the tap-sinks are not installed in the bathrooms and kitchens; the rooms are not painted and not tiled till the end. The parquet was not paved on the floor; but the parquet already fell out where they had made it. The walls are repaired in many flats. We request this company to finish the reconstruction in the buildings but we have not reached any results yet.”
The IDPs are discontent about the work implemented by the New Energy. An IDP from the settlement Tamuna Jishkariani said: “The walls were still wet when they painted it. So, the newly painted walls got black very soon because of wet. Today, we cannot live here.”
“What is reconstructed here?! The sink does not have water-pipe. They promised to fix it but nothing is done yet. We cannot open windows because they were installed incorrectly. The walls were left unpainted. They promised me to come and repair them but six months have passed and they have not come yet,” said Rezo Gedenidze from the settlement.
“Their workers did not work properly and we painted the walls ourselves. However, the building companies brought building materials to us,” said Medea Dgebuadze.
“Everything was done in a hurry. The tiles were broken in 30 places in the kitchen. The water is not coming in the bathroom and if it comes, the water is spraying from the pipes. When they installed doors, they left the door-frames without fixing into the door. The door is broken in three places. I am 78-year-old woman and I think they did not pay attention to me because I am lonely person. How the government could accept so poorly done job,” said Tamar Turkia.
“The walls should be renovated because water is leaking from the roof; they claimed they had replaced the roofs and covered it with new materials. If I close the door for one hour, there is terrible smell of moist in the room because the walls and ceiling are still wet. The water leaking from the roof damaged the wallpaper and the painted walls. Besides that, there are many other problems but now roof reconstruction is most urgent,” said Mimoza Kolbaia.
Bacho Basilaia, member of the initiative group: “The winner companies did not spend the sums they received from the government on the reconstruction of IDP accommodations. We request to spend entire sums allocated by the government on IDPs in accordance to the estimated schedules. They have to finish the reconstruction here.”
The local IDPs were employed on the reconstruction. The building companies employed 120 IDPs in total.
The three companies officially ceded the buildings to the municipal development fund. However, special commission disliked the implemented work several times. The companies are responsible for the quality within one year after the reconstruction finished. The initiative group requests them to repair the spoilt sinks and taps, broken tiles and window and door-frames which went wrong within one year. The company has saved 0, 2 % of the allocated sum for the improvement activities.
Company “Dagi” ceded its implemented work to the municipal development fund in January. So, the IDPs have only one month left to make the company improve its mistakes. Axis and New Energy have more time to improve their mistakes. The IDPs have good opinion about Axis because the company representatives cooperated with local inhabitants and started to improve the problems during the ongoing reconstruction activities. The local IDPs said that the Company will have to spend only 3 000 GEL to improve their mistakes because most of them are already eradicated.
The IDPs are mostly discontent with the New Energy. The representative of the Company Vaso Dzmaurashvili, who supervised the ongoing activities during several months, has not appeared in the settlement for one month already. His mobile phone is not available but the IDPs said Dzmaurashvili often changed his mobile number. The New Energy has one more problem with local IDPs besides badly reconstructed buildings – the company did not pay salaries to the IDPs who worked at the reconstruction for them.
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