Saakashvili Slams Cabinet, Calls for Red Tape ‘Revolution’

President Saakashvili criticized the cabinet members for their lack of having “direct contact with the people” and slammed lower level bureaucrats for being “scared, inactive and unreasonable.”

Mikheil Saakashvili was speaking at the government session on November 2 and this portion of the session was broadcasted live by the Georgian television stations.

“We were able to eradicate corruption in the government and in all the major structures. But I think we have serious problems in respect of direct contact with the people. None of the Minister – there are a few exception – ever answer phone calls. The Prime Minister always answers phone calls, whoever is calling – including a common citizen… This is not gossip; if I call you from a different phone number and not from mine, you never answer me, except Kakha Bendukidze [State Minister for Reform Issues]. I do not remember [Healthcare Minister Lado] Chipashvili answering any phone calls. You are not emperors; you are Ministers of small Ministries in a small country. You must answer any questions [put forth by] our citizens and must always be among the people. Tbilisi Mayor [Gigi Ugulava] has started going to the office via subway and bus and I welcome this very much… There must be full interaction with the society… Do not hide in you offices, because those Ministers who will hide in their offices will very soon be sacked,” Saakashvili said.

He said that this is “just a minor remark.” The major problem, Saakashvili continued, is that people are “tortured” when dealing with the local bureaucracy. “It is a long and burdensome process to get any kind of permit,” he added.

He said that although “there are no bureaucrats who take bribes,  there are bureaucrats who can not make decisions.”

“A scared bureaucrat – because of a fear of [Interior Minister Vano] Merabishvili or [Prosecutor General Zurab] Adeishvili – does not take bribes, but he also does not want to do something useful. There are thousands of cases like this. The reality now is that we have a scared, inactive and unreasonable [group of bureaucrats]… Bribe-taking is punishable, but not the initiative,” Saakashvili said.

He also criticized the Foreign Ministry for “having long lines at the consular office.”

“Very good reforms are underway in the Ministry of Justice… But go and try to get a passport, for example, in Telavi [a town in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti] and you will see how you will be tortured and how many times you will have to apply and see whether the revolution has occurred in this sector. And what reason did the [Rose] Revolution occur at all if a resident of, let’s say, the village of Akhalsopeli has to go to Telavi twenty times to apply for a passport?” Saakashvili said.

“We should understand that these people are the voters who brought us here [into the government]… We must learn to serve our people and understand that we are the government for the people and not just a government which only speaks from television screens… So please wake up and work in this direction,” he added.

On October 31 President Saakashvili met with regional governors and also called on them to have “closer contact with the people.” Saakashvili instructed them to hold regular public meetings within the next two weeks in order to find out, as Saakashvili put it, “what are the expectations of the population [and which ones] have not been met after the [Rose] Revolution.”

Opponents of the government say that the President’s statements are a reaction to increasing public discontent. “This is just part of a PR campaign, as the two year anniversary of the Rose Revolution is approaching,” said MP Davit Zurabishvili, who chairs the newly formed Democratic Front opposition parliamentary faction.

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