Monitoring Reveals Flaws in Millennium Aid Implementation
The Georgian authorities fail to follow commitments undertaken under the U.S.-funded Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) aid program, say the results of a monitoring carried out by the Tbilisi-based think-tank Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) and Open Society-Georgia Foundation (OSGF – an affiliate of the Soros Foundation network), the Georgian daily 24 Saati (24 Hours) reported on April 10.
Georgia and the United States signed a USD 295.3 million, five-year aid compact in September, 2005 which is designed to help develop Georgia’s infrastructure and reduce poverty in the country. The program was formally launched on April 9 when Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli and visiting chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) John Danilovich announced the program’s “Entry into Force.”
The newspaper quoted Irakli Khodeli of the OSGF that the compact signed between Georgia and the United States obliges the Georgian authorities to prescribe details of spending in frames of the aid program in the state budget.
In 2006 Georgia is expected to receive USD 51.7 million from the MCA, while only GEL 25.3 million (approximately USD 13.8 million) is included in the 2006 state budget. The spending of even this fund is not prescribed in detail, according to the monitoring results.
“We have appealed to the Finance Ministry for explanations. And the Ministry’s official response was that they do not know yet how and what for this fund will be spent so they do not want to include this sum [anticipated from the aid program] in the budget in advance,” Irakli Khodeli said.
According to the monitoring results, the Georgian authorities fail to meet deadlines set by the compact, including the deadlines related to the part of the program which covers the rehabilitation of the main gas pipeline. Irakli Khodeli says that this problem might lead to the entire implementation of the aid program to be postponed.
