Improving Coverage of Local Budget Issues in Kakheti

In late 2008, the regional newspaper Kakhetis Khma began a project to promote citizen oversight of the spending of the central budget transfers and subsidies for the Vintage-2008 program. This program allocated eight million GEL to support viticulture in Kakheti, but program beneficiaries had little understanding of the program. After receiving training from experienced budget experts in covering budgetary issues, Kakhetis Khma began journalistic investigations of the local budget spending for the program and began covering the issue in designated newspaper inserts.

On June 18, 2009, Kakhetis Khma arranged a public meeting with Minister of Agriculture Bakur Kvezereli. Minister Kvezereli answered questions from the audience of grape growers and winemakers about the subsidies allotted by the government through the Vintage-2008 program. The newspaper also conducted a survey to determine public satisfaction with the program and has already produced 12 newspaper inserts about Vintage-2008. Through these activities, the newspaper has become a forum for the communities and target groups to voice their concerns about the program.

Kakhetis Khma has submitted the results from the survey and recommendations based upon the monitoring to the Ministry and made them publicly available on www.media.ge and on the organization’s website. These recommendations include: establishing an information-consultation center to operate during and after the harvest to provide residents with concrete information about the government’s assistance.

Kakhetis Khma is now being published on a daily basis to inform the public about the government’s fulfillment of its obligations to the wineries through the Vintage-2009 program. The newspaper’s editor, Maya Mamulashvili, averred that the newspaper’s reputation among the communities has improved because of the project, increasing its readership.

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