South Ossetian authorities missed the deadlines for the Republic's restoration. According to Kommersant no more than a mere 100 of the 3,500 destroyed and damaged houses have been repaired. The government ran out of money allocated by Russia, and Moscow has no intentions of transferring any more funds. The Republic's authorities blame the Russian Regional Development Ministry for hampering the work, while Moscow officials are complaining about the sheer incompetence of Tskhinvali authorities. But in the end, the only ones who will suffer are the citizens of South Ossetia, who will once again undoubtedly spend their winter in tents. Clearly, these events may very well lead to social and perhaps even political disruptions.
Head of the State Restoration Committee Zurab Kabisov explained how work on the South Ossetian residential sector's restoration is being hampered. According to him, under the comprehensive plan to restore the republic, which was endorsed in the spring, the authorities planned to repair 250 private houses that were destroyed. Even accomplishing the plan wouldn't end the problems of the homeless victims, however, who spent the whole winter in tents or living with their neighbors and relatives, because the war left South Ossetia with about 3,500 totally or partially destroyed buildings. In the end, the authorities got behind even this slow schedule. "Fewer than 100 private houses were repaired. By the end of the year, we'll have repaired no more than 50 houses," Zurab Kabisov admitted to Kommersant.
Experts don't put much stock in these figures, however. "According to my data, not 100, but 60 houses, at the most, are ready right now, and some citizens actually built them at their own expense," head of the Civil Initiative fund and former South Ossetian Prime Minister Oleg Teziev said. According to a journalist from the only non-governmental newspaper, XXI Century, "a couple dozen houses are getting roofs put on, with others left as unfinished walls or even just foundations".
In the spring, South Ossetia's authorities said that the residential sector's restoration would be their top priority in 2009. President of the Republic Eduard Kokoyty, in his interview with Kommersant, stated that "winter was not the time for building" and promised to start large-scale building work in the spring. At that time, it seemed quite possible that most houses would be repaired, since in Georgia refugees from South Ossetia, whose houses had been destroyed, were holding housewarming parties as early as autumn. Apart from that, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised to allocate 10 bn roubles ($334 mn) to South Ossetia despite the economic crisis.
By April, the Republic had seen no work and Tskhinvali authorities announced that the homeless would only be able to move in to new houses by mid-summer. The deadlines were pushed back yet again: October 1, the initial deadline, was changed to December 31.
Zurab Kabisov informed Kommersant that missed deadlines were a result of Moscow's delays in financing. "2.2 bn roubles ($73 mn) of 10 bn roubles ($334 mn) were to be invested in the residential sector's restoration, with 1.2 bn roubles ($40 mn) meant for multi-story buildings and 1 bn roubles ($33 mn) for private houses," the official said. "Yet, the first tranche of money from Moscow didn't come until July 14, so the large-scale work in the residential sector started only after that. Then, in the second half of the year, we again suffered from a lack of funds."
Tskhinvali never received all the help promised by Russia. "Out of the 10 bn roubles ($334 mn) reserved in the Russian budget for South Ossetia, the Republic received only 6.1 bn roubles ($203.4 bn), with another 1.1 bn roubles ($36.8 mn) on the way. So, we will get a total of 7.2 bn roubles ($240.2 mn) by the end of the year", the head of the State Restoration Committee revealed to Kommersant. "We've already accounted for 5.2 bn roubles ($174 mn), but the volume of the conducted work is actually much higher - 9 bn roubles ($301 mn). The contractors have had to cover the additional expenses themselves".
As a result of all this, South Ossetia will have only about 2.8 bn roubles ($93.8 mn) reserved for next year. On December 10, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed executive order N 1889-р on assigning another 4.45 bn roubles ($149 mn) to Tskhinvali in 2010. But according to Kabisov, the funds will be used to create infrastructure, and Moscow will not allocate any more funds for the restoration of housing. "The Ministry informed us that we had to pay for the accomplished work in Q1 2010 and finish construction projects that we started. That means that the allocated funds will almost completely run out, and no money is expected to be allocated [for the housing fund] after that," the official lamented.
According to the Russian prime minister's executive order, published on the government's website, Russia will finance the restoration of South Ossetia's natural gas networks, sewage systems and water conduit in Tskhinvali, the construction of roads in Leningori, a fire station, and two heliports. Not a single mention of residential housing, however.
Meanwhile, expenses on further restoration will be substantial. According to Kabisov, 457 houses out of 3,500 are to be completely re-built. "Another 3,000 are partially damaged: some have no roofs, some don't even have walls," the official said.
The Republic doesn't have money to restore everything on its own. The authorities intend to put large families who lost their houses in the Moskovsky village, which was built at the expense of Moscow's city hall. Even if the government keeps its word, however, there won't be enough cottages for everybody, meaning that hundreds or even thousands of people will not simply spend their second winter in tents - they may even wind up homeless.
Tskhvinvali authorities attribute these complications to the financing delays caused by the Regional Development Ministry's system. "At the end of last year, we proposed a scheme under which the money would be transferred from the Russian Finance Ministry directly to the government of South Ossetia," Kabisov explained. "Our authorities and Russian Accounts Chamber would have been in charge of the funds' expenditure. But the Regional Development Ministry conducted its own scheme instead. Everybody said that it was implemented in order to speed up the financing, but the money is sure taking a long time to get here."
As Kommersant reported earlier, the Regional Development Ministry and Tskhinvali even battled each other to take control over the financial flows assigned by Moscow to restore South Ossetia (see Kommersant as of March 3). Local officials were especially displeased with the idea of creating a so-called Southern directorate, a federal body to serve as the contractor and control all the funds. Ultimately, the Regional Development Ministry won. As Kabisov pointed out to Kommersant, the decree on creating the Southern directorate was signed only on December 14, almost a year after the idea had first been conceived.
The Regional Development Ministry declined to comment on the situation: Kommersant's written inquiry was left unanswered. Interestingly enough, however, this summer, Deputy Head of the Regional Development Ministry Roman Panov publicly accused Tskhinvali authorities of delaying the restoration process.
"Judging by the volumes of the assigned funds and the incredibly slow pace of restoration, I don't exclude the possibility of both parties misusing the funds," former South Ossetian Prime Minister Oleg Teziev said. "If this continues, no houses will be built even in a span of several years, and most citizens will simply leave South Ossetia by that time. Only 17,000-18,000 people have remained in the entire Republic."
No wonder the controversy has started to shake South Ossetia: in October, Tskhinvali witnessed a street rally of homeless victims, whose participants publicly accused both the authorities and President Kokoyty of bribery. Then the authorities managed to calm the protesters by promising to speed-up construction. Later on, however, employees of the Republic's Committee for State Security met with the rally's organisers. A second winter in tents may lead to more dramatic consequences.
Alexander Gabuev