Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi
Georgian President declared Kutaisi to be second capital of Georgia. He promised to do his very best to turn his words into reality. While making statements about the increased role of Kutaisi in the development of the country, President Saakashvili meant that some central governmental bodies will be moved to Kutaisi. He reported the entire Georgia about his decision at the meeting of the government in Kutaisi and promised local residents that new job vacancies would be created in the region. Although, the president really kept his promise-National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply moved to Kutaisi, people are dissatisfied with the innovative change. Locals complain about “previously arranged deals” and “previously occupied vacancies”.
National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply found only 15 vacant places in its institution and announced a competition on the very first day when it moved to Kutaisi. Despite few vacant places, the commission received plenty of job applications. However, the commission members called only 15 people out of 600 applicants for actual interviews.
“Nobody should think that the commission actually conducted any kind of competition for those vacancies. Nothing of the kind was done. Everything was planned and identified well in advance. Why did they invite exactly those 15 people to the interview who were later accepted at the office? The truth is that none of those 15 people were interviewed. They were employed based on agreements that existed beforehand. The announced competition was kind of coverage to deceive people into thinking that they had been an open competition. In reality it was actually a performance and representatives of National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply must have enjoyed the process to a substantial degree. Now probably the government will be proud to show that it has moved the Road Department and the Chamber of Control to Kutaisi. However, this time the people will not be fools and they will not be deceived by their promise,” states Manana Gogia, the applicant to National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply.
National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply continues to claim that the competition was held in accordance with the law and that no violations had occurred. It further states that the main reason why National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply moved to Kutaisi was to give jobs to the local populace.
“What kind of employment are you talking about? They only made fool of the people. I had expected they would act just as they did in the end. However, I had never thought that they would have treated us in such a nasty way. I applied to take part in the competition. I wanted to know what would come out of this process. I was skeptical from the beginning but I simply wanted to find out what were my abilities. I will not give up, of course. I will demand to see the documentation of those 15 who officially won in the competition. I will try my best to disclose the truth, “states Nato Katamadze, deputy chairperson of Republic Party Kutaisi Organization.
“These are typical of the statements of people who are angry with the Commission. No deals were made with those applicants who won in the competition. It is natural that we could not have asked all 600 people to come on an interview,” states Guram Chalagashvili, chairperson of National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply.
Students also applied for the job vacancies, and the staff selection commission took their applications into consideration. This is when one of the requirements for the applicants was to have a university diploma.
“This was not an objective competition. The criteria for selecting people remain unidentified up to now. Many applications were received from a student, which shows the unserious approach that the Commission took on the issue and this further proves that this competition was a joke. Some people who did not participate in the competition ended up appointed to various vacancies. We requested to obtain access to their CVs. However, the Commission did not provide them to us, which proves that their hiring decisions were biased. According to General Administrative Code of Georgia, the information on administrative body staff is public, and no one has the right not to grant the information. It is now clear and based on actual facts, there wasn’t any competition held for jobs in the National Regulation Commission,” states Zurab Khurtsidze, head of “the Association for Protection of Human Rights and Fighting against Corruption.”
Problems regarding the National Regulation Commission of the Energy and Water Supply competition concerns not only applicants but also ordinary Kutaisians. They say that the Georgian government made false promises when they guaranteed that the unemployment rate in Kutaisi would take a dramatic drop as a result of moving some state bodies to Kutaisi, the second Georgia Capital. Now locals consider that the National Regulation Commission competition scenario will be a repeat when the Chamber of Control and Road Department are moved to Kutaisi from Tbilisi. There might be some small changes as the number of applications based on the first experience with job announcements.
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