Representatives of Aid and Employment Office Violate Human Rights

Poor people living in the Kakheti region don’t hold the “Poverty Reduction Program” in high esteem. They even doubt if it exists to assist poor families. There are serious doubts about the competence of social workers and it is alleged that some are corrupt. Program applicants also claimed that the board of the Kakheti Regional Center for the State Social Aid and Employment does not show interests in their needs and their insensitivity is well demonstrated with the way representatives of the social agency insult the poor people when they call in for assistance over the phone.  

Says one disgruntled local, “I applied for assistance under a program that was to help socially excluded families in February of 2006 and provided the completed form to the village councilor. However, only after four or five months, I finally received notification stating my family was granted 76 thousands evaluation points. I am extremely poor and live alone. The roof leaks. Moreover, I am unemployed and the only source of income that I have is a meager pension. I have neither poultry nor cattle. I cannot cultivate the land either.  I could not agree with the estimated qualification indicator that was granted to me by the social agent. Consequently I petitioned to the Gurjaani District Social Aid and Employment Office. I demanded that they carry out another evaluation of my property and that I provided an explanation in response to my demands.

“I petitioned again in December of 2006, because the agency did not respond to my appeal. In addition, I applied to the human rights organization for help. As a result, only then did social workers from the Social Aid Program examine my family for the second time. It was only because Human Rights Center’s representatives had contacted them and demanded to know what was going on in my case. However, I do not know what they’ve decided following the second determination,” said Makvala Javshanashvili, a resident of the village of Chandari in the Gurjaani district.

Eighty-year-old Shasha Elikashvili also lives in extremely poor conditions. She and her daughter do not work and their house is dilapidated and is on the verge of collapsing. They no longer receive electricity supplies because they failed to pay their bills. The family has neither gas, nor firewood to heat the house in winter. Their lives basically depend on a 38-lari monthly pension. In addition, they are physically unable to cultivate their land. The Elikashvilis have no domestic poultry or life stock. There are no curtains and no furniture in their room and two iron beds is all that they own.

In short, the Eliakshvilis’ were granted 53 thousand point score but this did not correspond to their poor living conditions. Shasha Elikashvili applied to the local office of the State Social Aid and Employment and requested that an inventory of their property be taken once again. However, in spite of a second examination, the scoring remained the same.

Many other people live in similar conditions as the Elikashvilis. However, these families have cattle and small children flocks and also receive monthly allowance. They are also provided free medical assistance. These families generate supplemental income besides their pension and live in better conditions than those who were unable to become signed up for the program. 

The people said that some of the better-living families received allowances after having arranged “deals” with social workers. “A family could have worked something out with the social worker. As a result, the social worker doctored the declaration in order to meet the program’s requirements. Finally, the applicant could be granted with either free medical assistance or money allowance. According to the deal, the social worker could use the sum of the first four months’ allowances or the family could give him/her some other form or payoff. This story is real but nobody wants to speak loudly about those ‘poor’ families. “What shall we do about the really poor families who actually deserve assistance? Shall we keep silence and refuse the aid?” Makhvala Javshanashvili, Elza Giorgashvili, Lamara Sologhashvili and others wonder.

The poor also pointed out that when they called the Kakheti Regional Office of Social Aid and Employment to find out the situation firsthand nobody would respond to their questions and sometimes the agents would even insult them.

The representatives of the Human Rights Center also were insulted when they called the Kakheti Regional Office and requested the phone number of Otar Sesikashvili, the head of the center. “Who are you? And why do you need his phone number?” Responded an aggressive sounding woman who had introduced herself as an accountant for the center.

-We want to find out some information about one of the applicants.The woman provided us wrong number.

-The number you gave was wrong. Could you please tell us the right one?-Why must I serve you?
-You are a public employee and we pay for your salary…-You are degenerate and are behaving impudently…how are you paying for my salary? With the last word degenerate the woman hung up.

Sesikashvili, having heard about the above mention incident, condemned the behavior of the accountant but he still denied the allegations of citizens had been insulted and questioned the presented facts.

“I will find out whoever dared to insult the people will punish them for their mistake. As for the incompetence and the corruption of the social workers, I do not agree with that allegation. However, there are some problems with our work but we try to resolve them,” responded Sesikashvili.

Unless the applicants received any information about repeated assessments of their situation, the choice is left to appeal to the court to protect their rights.  With this in mind, eighty-year-old Shasha Elikashvili is also going to appeal against the agency at the court.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti