How and Who Spends Funds Allocated for IDPs?

Tea Tedliashvili, Gori

Government of Georgia received huge sums for the accommodation of IDPs. European Union apportioned 10 million Euro. However, people wonder whether the government really spent all the apportioned funds on the accommodation of IDPs. The government of Georgia avoids answering these questions and tries to hide the information.

Construction of each cottage for one IDP family cost 26, 7 thousand GEL. Who and how purchased land for the settlements of the IDPs?

The Ministry of Internal Affairs was entitled to accommodate IDPs. Minister Vano Merasbishvili was observing the process.

So, it is not strange that the press- center of the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation does not have information how many millions were spent on the activities; who purchased the land and who constructed the cottages on that land. They did not send written reply to our questions. When we called at the Ministry, Mariana from the Ministry (she did not tell us her name) replied to us: “As far as we know, the MIA and Foundation for Municipal Development were observing the construction of cottages and settlement of IDPs. We do not have any information about the issues you are asking about.” In fact, Georgian TV Companies have reported several times how Vano Merabishvili visited the settlements and observed the construction activities. Consequently, we tried to get in touch with the MIA. We sent letter to the e-mail of the ministry and asked the following questions: 1. How much was spent on the construction of cottages? 2. How many cottages were constructed? 3. How much land was purchased for the construction of each settlement? We also inquired if the sum was transferred to the bank account of the MIA. Besides that we required the list of the companies which constructed the cottages. Of course, the MIA did not reply to our letter.

Afterwards, we sent same questions to the Foundation for Municipal Development. Tamar Tvaliashvili, representative of the press- center of the Foundation, provided us with the following information: “The Foundation for Municipal Development of Georgia built 1 263 cottages for IDPs. 783 of them were funded from the World Bank; the rest was funded by the government of Georgia.” She also said that 26, 7 was total cost of each cottage; the total residential space was 55, 9 sq. meters for each family. The list of residential buildings funded by the Foundation in Shida Kartli is the following: 134 cottages were built on the land of 600 sq. meters in the village of Berbuki, Gori district (“Lazoinvesti Ltd” was employed there); 86 cottages were built on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Skra, Gori district (“Nola Ltd” was employed there); 177 cottages were constructed on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Shavshvebi, Gori district (“Mshenebeli-80 Ltd”, “RTG Ltd”, “Imereti – 2000 Ltd”, “Goni” and JSC “Tbilmretsvmsheni” were employed there); 139 cottages were built on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Khurvaleti, Gori district (JSC “Samsheneblo Tresti N 3” and “Intermsheni A&P Ltd” were employed there); 54 houses were built on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Teliani in Kaspi district (“Planeta Ltd” was employed there); 35 houses were built on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Metekhi in Kaspi district (“Planeta Ltd” was employed there); 100 houses were built on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Akhalsopeli in Kareli district (Axis Ltd was employed there); 58 houses were built on 600 sq. meters of land in the village of Mokhisi in Kareli district (“Injmsheni Ltd” was employed there); 480 houses were built on 300 sq. meters of land in the village of Karaleti, Gori district (“Block Georgia Ltd,” “Planeta Ltd” and “Axsmsheni Ltd” were employed there).

“The Foundation did not purchase the land for the construction of cottages; it was the prerogative of the state. The Foundation was not responsible to settle the IDPs in the cottages either.  You should apply to the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation regarding these activities,” said Tamar Tvaliashvili.

Of course, we once more tried to call the Ministry of the Refugees and Accommodation but they did not reply to us.

The most surprising is that we could not get answers from the representatives of the EU either. Their press-center did not reply to our e-mail at all.

Snakes and IDPs

It is interesting whether the IDPs are satisfied with new cottages. We interviewed some of them and here you can read their comments without any changes.

“The snakes are coming out directly from the floor. It is impossible to live there. The floor makes noise when we are walking on it. There are so many snakes there that we cannot defeat them yet. Sometimes they fall down from the roof sometimes they come up from the floor. The reason is that the worst places were selected for our settlement. They claim 27 000 GEL was spent on the construction of each cottage, but that is impossible. I could place all the staff they gave us as aid in one room of my house in the village,” said Gocha Kakhniashvili, IDP living in the settlement of Skra, Gori district.

“We have grass in the rooms; so many ants attack us that we cannot fight with them. The snake is crawling in the yard freely and we do not know how to resolve the problem. One snake was killed yesterday. Not a single official has come here and asked us if we can live in these cottages which are already falling apart. I requested to construct a cattle-shed in front of the house but they refused. I bought pigs with the money NGOs had given to us and now I have to build a shed for them in the yard. What shall I do? Family in village should have domestic animals. Representatives of the NGO visited us and promised to buy cows for us; we signed some documents but nobody has bought anything. Then the same person arrived in our settlement and categorically refused that they had promised us to buy cows,” said Tengiz Basishvili.

Monitoring and Roof

“Transparency International –Georgia” is one of those organizations which monitor the financial aid donors apportioned for IDPs. Consequently, the organization observes the settlement process of IDPs The head of the organization Tamar Karosanidze said evaluation of the quality and steadiness of the houses; there are no expert conclusions on it yet. However, it is obvious that the cottages are built at low quality because walls and floor boards have gone apart”.

According to Karosanidze, the houses will not pull down as experts told her because the cottages are one-floor buildings and the weight will not damage the construction. Supposedly, the houses in settlements will not destroy. However, it is doubtful they will be fit enough to live in next year.

“The IDPs will be considered satisfied with permanent accommodation if their houses are steady and comfortable enough to live in for long time. Deformation of walls after fast construction resulted into a gaps in the floors; cold air is blowing from the gaps that means next winter will be unbearable for settlers,” it was written in the report of the Transparency International-Georgia.

We spent whole day in the village of Skra and visited every family. The walls have gone apart and grass has grown up between the floor boards. After the rain leaked into the house, Tengiz Basishvili, an IDP from the village of Kurta, had to climb up into the attack to cut a hole in the ceiling; unfortunately he could not get into the attack because the veneer is too weak for the weight of a man; particularly when it is wet with rain.

“Can anybody say that this house has roof? Let them have bought houses in villages or let them have given the money to us and we could have constructed our houses. We cannot repair if something goes wrong; they do not allow us to. The water is leaking in the kitchen,” said Tengiz Basishvili.

Two-storied house in any village of Shida Kartli region costs less than 20 000 GEL. The Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation justified themselves by saying that if they had decided to purchase houses in villages it could increase the price of houses in villages. However, the information how much was spent on the purchase of construction materials is still secret. Supposedly, the wood was used to build houses and it was not imported from abroad because trees were cut in Georgia. The Transparency International – Georgia has requested information in which forest the trees were cut to build thousands of houses but they were not replied yet.

As for the living conditions in the cottages, IDPs say that nobody provides food or some other things of necessity to them for a long time already. They will have to pay their electricity bills since September 2009. Currently, the USAID covers their bills.

The article was prepared within the project –“Network of Journalists-for the Transparency of International Aid to Georgia”.
The project is implemented by the Regional Association of Georgian Media.  The project is funded by the Marshal Fund within the framework of the project “The Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation” funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Fund