2007 Year Publications

2007 Year

12-12-2012

The goal of the Project “Civil Society and Kutaisi Government” funded by Friedrich Ebert Fund was increasing the awareness of Kutaisi population regarding the responsibilities of Kutaisi Government.

The project considered arranging meetings of Kutaisi citizens with the representatives of the local Self-Government and municipalities (there are 12 Municipalities in Kutaisi). The inquiry of the population was conducted according to the municipalities interviewing 1000 respondents. The main direction of the enquiry was defined by the motto - “Are you satisfied with the results of 2006 Local-Self Government elections?” It is worth to mention that the inquiry was conducted in a year time after the Kutaisi Local-Self Government elections, when it was possible to monitor their promises.

To increase the awareness of the Society we published the brochure “Civil Society and the Kutaisi Government” The brochure contains 68 pages and 14 chapters, attachments.

The main part of the brochure contains the key issues referring the Local-Self Government, it’s role and rights in the city Management, relationship with business and NGOs as well as relationship with central and regional Government, international opportunities. The issues are reviewed according the chapters listed below.

• The history of Self-Government in Georgia
• Local-Self Government today
• Non-Government Organizations and Local-Self Government
• What are the causes of the ineffectiveness of the Local-Self Government?
• Local-Self Government and administrative management.
• Real Estate
• Public Utilities
• Publicity of the information
• What are the public requirements?

The review of the above mentioned chapters is given in comparison with the Georgian Organic Low about “Local-Self Government” and Kutaisi Local-Self Government Regulations and the processes going in reality.

Besides there the following issues in the Brochure.

• General review of Kutaisi
• Information about the Project
• The results of the Society inquiry and small analyses.
• Attachments.
• The attachment contains the following information:
• The analyses of inquiry according to the ages (18-25; 25-65 and above 65) of respondents, giving their different and similar visions.
• The list of NGOs operating in Kutaisi
• Living Fund
• Areas
• The statues of the privatization process of the blocks of houses.
• There is also the explanation of the structure, rights, responsibilities and property of the Local-Self Government in a popular language according to the Organic Lawof Georgia. For that purpose the sixth chapter “Local-Self Government today” contains the following subchapters:
• Local-Self Government (general explanation);
• The Commissions and temporary working groups;
• The bureau of the Local-Self Government;
• The factions of the Local-Self Government;
• The management positions in Local-Self Government – Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Heads of the Commissions, Heads of the Factions
• The structure, rights and responsibilities of the Local-Self Government Executive Body (City Municipality).
• The Management bodies of the City Municipality, their Managers;
• The property of the Local-Self Government and privatization of the property.

The seventh chapter “What are the causes of the ineffectiveness of the Local-Self Government?” contains the results of the inquiry of the society, comparisons of the existing situation with the Organic Law of Georgia and the conclusions. The conclusions of the above mentioned chapter is:

• The low engagement of the public opinion in the decision making process of the Local-Self Government
• No Functions of the Governor’s Office and the failure of execution of the responsibilities under the law.
• Wrong fiscal policy, which is the reason of low financial resources; accordingly the issues to be solved locally stays unsolved. The issue becomes severe while urgent problems of the city.
• The low trust to the State Representative-Governor, because of its lack abilities of decision making and financial support.

In the brochure in a popular language we tried to explain one of the most important issues for the population -the Real Estate using the Georgian Legislation. The Chapter reviews the following issues:

• Property and the Inheritance Right;
• What is the Real Estate?
• What is necessary for purchasing the Real Estate?
• Inherit the Real Estate
• Transfer of the not privatized property
• Fees and terms

The twelfth chapter “What are the public requirements?” we consider as most interesting out of the rest three chapters, which is totally based on the results of the inquiry with evaluation of readiness of the society to ask the relevant services according to their rights. We consider that the awareness of Kutaisi population needs to be significantly raised to be formed into the Civil Society. Below is an extract from the evaluation of the above mentioned chapter.

“Nowadays the society is more interested in social and domestic problems, they are less informed about the democratic values and that’s why their attitude is more than far from the views of the Civil Society”.

In general the brochure “Civil Society and the Kutaisi Government” is the first attempt for informing the society about the Kutaisi Government and publicizing the public opinion about the Public Utilities. It describes existing situation in the field in 2007 and the public attitude towards it. It gives us the right to apologize for the mistakes always accompany this kind of work.

During the project period we conducted several Conferences, meetings, round table discussions, which got great interest among local, regional and central media. Below is listed the articles about the Project.

• The article “Dissatisfied Population, Contented Service Centre and the Intermediate Government” – Newspaper “Kutaisuri Versia”(Kutaisi Version), March 05-12, 2007.
• The article “The Problem that Worries all of Us” – Newspaper “Kutaisuri Versia” (Kutaisi Version), March 12-18, 2007.
• The article: “The Unsolved Problem”. – Newspaper “Akhali Gazeti” (New Newspaper), March 05-12, 2007.
• The article: “Good, for you ASA, go on!” – Newspaper “Sakartvelos Respublika” (Republic of Georgia) October 2007.
• The article “Why do not Kutaisi Citizens Entrust the City Water Supply?” –Newspaper “P.S.” November 26-December 2, 2007.
• The article “The Water Problem or???” –Newspaper “Kutaisuri Versia” (Kutaisi Version), December 10-12, 2007.
• The article: “Why the Candidate (former President) Promises us the Impossible Things?” – Newspaper “Sakartvelos Respublika” (Republic of Georgia) December 11, 2007.