53
45
For instance, the general prosecutor of Georgia was resisting the increase in his
own salary in order to prevent the increase in the pension of his retired corrupt
predecessor
132
.
In 2004, the Georgian government started to consider application of
private pension schemes that would allow people to accumulate decent amount of
money for their period of retirement. However, it was not so easy to implement.
There was a project of “100 USD pension package” aimed at raising the pensions,
but the financial crisis suspended it
133
. The social expenditure of government
increased from 27,2% in 2007 to 33,9% in 2010. The major part of expenditures
(64%) has been composed by the pensions
134
.
2.11. Public Healthcare.
The new government of Georgia has been working hard on reforming of
the sphere of public health. At present moment, it is developing the National
Health Strategy for 2011-2015
135
. Since the Soviet times, the healthcare in
Georgia has been in a very bad condition. In the communist times, the access to
the health services was to be free for everyone. In reality, in Georgia as well as in
other republics of the USSR, the healthcare system was of rather low quality and
was under-funded. There was an oversupply of specialists (nurses, hospitals and
doctors) in the Soviet system, but medical materials and technologies were in
shortage. Acco
rdingly, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, all this “extra
-
stuff”
became unemployed. There were some attempts of Shevardnadze to privatize a
part of healthcare system. However, in reality, these privatized medical centres
became private hospitals, serving to the narrow layer of wealthy people.
Healthcare system under Shevardnadze looked like a mixture of the Soviet-
centralized, state-funded system with partial privatized hospitals in periphery of
this system
136
. The overall perception of “free healthcare” concealed in itself the
132
Burakova L., «Why Georgia has succeeded», «United Press», 2011
133
A.Gugushvili, The (non)Reform of the Georgian Pension system, 1991-2011:A Brief History
and update, 2012.
134
J. Gadbury and L.Schou-Zibell, Pensions and Pension Reform in Georgia,
ADB Central and West Asia Working Paper Series, September 2011.
135
European Bank for Reconstraction and Development, www. Ebrd.com
136
K. Schecter, The Privatization of the Georgian Healthcare System, American International
Health Alliance, p.15-17.
50
46
citizens’ awareness that without a “gift” doctors would not help
137
. High level of
corruption in the country made it difficult to keep the healthcare on a decent level.
Large expenses of government turned out to the low quality of healthcare.
Kakha Bendukidze implemented the reform of healthcare privatization,
trying to exclude state from the function of management of medical sphere
138
.
Since 2007, the Georgian government increased the expenses on healthcare, even
though they were smaller than the European standards. Today, there are a lot of
complains about the private insurances, applied in the new Georgian health
system. Some researchers argue that there is not enough information about
insurances in the rural areas of Georgia and some people still do not know about
change in the healthcare. There are a big number of people who cannot afford
private insurances
139
. Nevertheless, according to the report of the WHO, the poor
families receive vouchers that allow them to get a voluntary medical insurance
140
.
There are still a lot of problems in the Georgian healthcare. It is difficult to
replace a centralized healthcare with a private one. The problem of the belief in
the large government is still alive after the Soviet times and many people think
that the government should take care of its citizens. At the same time, there is a
growing distrust of citizens towards the government all over the world, but in
Georgia, which has been decreasing the role of government, such trust towards the
government is growing. In that matter, in order to regulate the stability of the
healthcare system and cover possible gaps that may appear during the
transformation from public to private healthcare, the government created a new
social security scheme. According to Kakha Bendukidze, the nonsense social
policy can only harm the system of social welfare and it cannot decrease poverty.
In order to achieve major social goals, the reforms should be realistic, pragmatic
and goal-oriented and should be combined with the policies of further economic
development
141
.
137
Burakova L., «Why Georgia has succeeded», «United Press», 2011
138
K. Schecter, The Privatization of the Georgian Healthcare System, American International
Health Alliance, p.17.
139
K. Schecter, The Privatization of the Georgian Healthcare System, American International
Health Alliance, p.18.
140
Overview, abstract, Healthcare system: the time for changes, Georgia, www.euro.who.int.
141
Burakova L., «Why Georgia has succeeded», «United Press», 2011
44
47
The Georgian government tries to maintain the achieved level of success,
making new steps towards better governance and the rule of law. In 2011, Georgia
joined the Open Government Partnership, which was initiated by the president of
USA and the president of Brazil. This organization promotes accountability,
transparency and efficiency of national government. Georgia established the
Action Plan aimed at achieving several most essential tasks: improving public
sector, increasing public integrity, more effectively managing public resources
and creating safer communities
142
.
In this chapter, I have tried to describe the process of implementation of
reforms by the new “Rose Revolution” government with the Michael Saa
kashvili
and Kakha Bendikidze as main initiators of these reforms. The main results of the
National Anti-corruption Strategy and the Action Plan, which is a major tool and
guideline for fighting corruption in Georgia are the following:
Police free of corruption. The anti-corruption measures of the new
government led to significant improvement of results of police
performance, growing trust to the police among the citizens, better contact
with the police (as it was mentioned by interviewed persons, after
fundamental reforms, the Georgian policemen became polite, kind and
always willing to help).
Liquidation of the thieves in law and organized crime. With complete
destruction of organized crime groups, the Georgian society found itself in
more secure and transparent conditions. Nowadays, there is no need to use
help of criminal organizations, since administration and other enforcement
institutions work fair, fast and efficiently.
Improved judiciary system. Increase in judges’ and prosecutors’ salaries,
improvement of working conditions led to transparency in judiciary
system in Georgia. These fundamental changes impacted the Georgian
judicial performance
143
.
Reducing the level of bureaucracy. Today, the people in Georgia can issue
all kind of documents and services without queuing, paying bribes,
142
Georgia, Action Plan, Ministry of Justice, www. Justice.gov.de
143
Picture of Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office is to find in annex.
39
48
spending a lot of time in institutions. The system is transparent, easy in
use, fast and comfortable
144
.
Brilliant results in simplification of bureaucratic process in starting and
doing business (fair tax system, absence of criminal groups).
Privatization of government enterprises.
Increase in salaries and pensions.
Bringing stability and security to the state system (cleaning it from
corruption) which resulted in significant growth of foreign direct
investments to Georgian economy.
There are still unsolved issues in social and economic life of Georgia.
However, one should remember that the complete transformation of the system
takes time. The rule of law, transparent government, accessible infrastructure is
enough to change the living standards of citizens overnight. There are some
memories and traditions, cultural peculiarities, historical legacy that sill tearing
the country apart. Civil society does not emerge at the moment when a good
government comes to power. It should grow with the awareness of citizens about
the things changing for better. Gap in establishing efficient healthcare one day
would be filled out. It will take time to select suitable system that would serve all
citizens in a high quality at the same time it would be convenient for the
government in terms of expenses. Reforming the pension system and increase of
salaries of civil servants would be done when the state would cope with financial
crisis as well as political crisis with Russia.
Definitely, it is important to know many things have not being
implemented during the reforms. Nevertheless, it is crucial to value all the
fundamental and unique reforms which have been implemented by Mikhail
Saakashvili. In this terms, I would argue that the Georgian government completed
amazing task. Businessmen from all over the world as well as regular Georgian
citizens agree with the fact, that Saakashvili’s government has cleaned the country
from corruption on low and middle level. Corruption was the main complain of
the Georgian citizens before the Rose Revolution. Overall fatigue of corruption
144
Picture of Public Service Hall is to find in annex.
6
49
was the cause of Revolution and brought Saakashvili to power. Should one say
that mission is complete? Partially, it is. In the next chapter, I describe the things
what have not being achieved by the new government. Also there are
recommendations for other post-Soviet countries on anti-corruption reforms from
the experience of Georgia.
36
50
Chapter III.
“Elite C
orruption and the Georgian Lessons for other Post-Soviet
Countries”
Nothing is ever black and white - every abrupt success conceals flaws and
defects. In my research, I am not arguing that the anti-corruption policies
implemented in Georgia have significantly reduced the level of corruption. The
objective of my thesis is to prove the success of the anti-corruption policies
implemented in Georgia after the Rose Revolution. I think it would be pertinently
to mention the statement elaborated by Fleck and Kuzmics one more time:
“
Corruption can be found in all societies that have reached a certain level
of complexity
”.
I am not abolishing this statement it in my research. I have already
described the successes of anti-corruption reforms done by the Georgian
government. The positive impact on different social areas such as education,
police forces, judiciary, public institutions is obvious. These reforms have not
only impacted the state structure, but the citizens as well. What I mean is the
better organization and obliging characteristics of Georgians today in comparison
to the past. There was a lack of these characteristics when it came to deal with
Georgian people
145
. I would connect this change with the occurrence of
transparent system in governing and administration in Georgia.
However, there is a place for a critic of the new Georgian government.
Trying to be objective in my research, besides the general overviews published by
experts, I would like to provide some private experiences of the people who have
done business in Georgia before and after the Rose Revolution. According to the
report of Philip Dimitrov, the EU Ambassador in Georgia, the Georgian reforms
towards fight of corruption has been successful very successful so far. In 2010,
the reforms have met all the requirements imposed by the European Union on the
Georgian government. The administrative corruption was fought, however, there
145
Personal interveiw.
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
