GEORGIA’S BIG MILITARY SPENDING BOOST
By Koba Liklikadze in Tbilisi

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
July 19 2007

Government says sharp rise in defence spending will professionalise
army but questions are asked about why the money is being spent.

Georgia, which has made breathtaking increases in its defence spending
over the last two years, looks set to beat all records this year.

In late June, the Georgian government increased the defence ministry’s
budget of 513 million laris (315 million US dollars) by 442 million
laris (260 million dollars).

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,
SIPRI, Georgia currently has the highest average growth rate of
military spending in the world. Some independent experts are worried
that the spending is not fully accounted for, while others say that
it could undermine the peace processes with the breakaway territories
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Georgian government insists that the increased spending is
absolutely vital to allow the country to improve its defence
capabilities, fulfill its NATO commitments and strengthen social
support for its military personnel.

"Part of the sum will be used to purchase the equipment that a modern
army needs," Defence Minister David Kezerashvili told IWPR. "Another
part will be spent on sending an increased (2000-strong) military
contingent to Iraq."

Kezerashvili rejected claims that Georgia is engaged in a potentially
dangerous process of militarisation that could destabilise the
situation with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"We are simply building our army," he said. "We started building it
from scratch, when the budget was only 50 million laris. Naturally,
against the background of what we had three years ago, it now looks
as though we are making big steps toward militarisation. That is not
the case. We are simply creating a small, but a very mobile army that
will be capable of performing any tasks the country will set it."

Political expert Archil Gegeshidze said the rise in defence spending
should be put in context, arguing, "Georgia has lagged behind the
two other countries in the region in both the quantity and quality
of its equipment", and it needed to professionalise its army in order
to move towards NATO membership.

"In my opinion, the rise in Georgia’s defence budget is not linked
to the similar tendency in Armenia and Azerbaijan," he said. "Georgia
simply didn’t have effective armed forces up until now."

Another analyst, Paata Zakareishvili, was more doubtful, saying he was
concerned money was being spent on defence instead of the Georgia’s
urgent social needs.

"In a country where a lot of social problems have built up, where
there is a need to fight poverty on a national scale, it is worrying
that we have this kind of military budget," he said. "It’s obvious
that the state is more worried about its army than about social
programmes or education."

The government’s decision encountered almost no resistance in
parliament, with opposition deputies only demanding more details
on how the massively increased budget – now accounting for six per
cent of the country’s GDP and equivalent to spending on social and
healthcare programmes – would be spent.

"At the meeting of the defence committee, I was the only one apparently
interested in this information and that’s not normal for a democratic
state," Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights parliamentary faction
told IWPR. He said the issue of military spending was taboo for
the opposition.

The general secretary of the governing National Movement party, David
Kirkitadze, said the budget was as transparent as could be expected.

"Naturally, something that is a military secret cannot be made known
to everyone," said Kirkitazde. "However, some information such as the
quantity of weapons we’ve bought and the number of military personnel
we have is public and can be obtained by anyone interested."

Irakly Sesiashvili, who heads a non-governmental organisation Justice
and Freedom, disputed this, saying that the defence ministry had
not accounted for large sums in its new budget. He cited a report
by the country’s audit chamber that uncovered major irregularities
in the ministry’s finances in 2005-2006 under former minister Irakly
Okruashvili.

Irakly Aladashvili, military commentator with the Kviris Palitra
weekly newspaper, has also investigated suspicious discrepancies in
the prices paid for military equipment.

"In early 2005, 15 heavy trucks were bought in Ukraine for 42,000
dollars each. Two months later, the same vehicles were purchased
at the price of 52,000 dollars each, ten thousand dollars more. Ten
lorries were bought, which means the damage done to the budget was
no less than 100 thousand dollars.

"I think there should be a structure – something like a general
inspectorate – set up under the president, the commander-in-chief,
to monitor what is going on and report back to the president," he said.

Kezerashvili told IWPR that his ministry was about to adopt a
new automated management system that would ensure transparency of
expenditure, as required by its commitments under its Individual
Partnership Action Plan for NATO.

Georgia has already presented in Brussels a "strategic defence review"
that envisages a long-term budget for the ministry. The ministry has
also published details of the increased military expenditure on its
website. The report lists sums assigned for all major items, making
only one of them secret – "purchases of weapons, military equipment
and materials". Defence officials say the secrecy is a precautionary
measure.

"This is to prevent Russia from influencing our potential arms supplier
partners and undermining our plans," Nika Rurua, deputy chairman of
the parliament’s national security and defence committee, explained
to IWPR.

Despite reassurances that the increased military spending is designed
to professionalise the army and is not aimed at the separatist
territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the territories themselves
are not convinced.

"People in South Ossetia feel that Georgians contradict themselves
in what they say, and what they do," Bela Valieva, a resident of the
South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, told IWPR. "On the one hand they
speak about peaceful resolution to conflicts, and on the other they
increase their military budget all the time."

Boris Chochiev, deputy prime minister of the de facto government of
South Ossetia and the main negotiator with Tbilisi, went further,
blaming western countries for the situation. He told IWPR that his
government constantly raised the issue of Tbilisi’s military build-up
with the international community but did not get a "sensible answer".

"We are astonished at the position of countries that are calling on
us to disarm while at the same time they are arming the aggressor,
Georgia," he said. "It’s not Georgia that is increasing its budget.

The money is being given them by the West."

Tbilisi analyst Archil Gegeshidze said that the Georgian government
should make a greater effort to convince Abkhazia and South Ossetia
that the increase in spending was not aimed at them. "We have to
explain to the other side that the strength of our armed forces is
not directed against their interests but serves the interests of our
common state," he said.

Zakareishvili is worried that the increased spending is undermining
trust. "We are basically sending a clear message – that the military
is important for us in resolving the conflicts," he said.

Koba Liklikadze is a military analyst with Radio Liberty in Tbilisi.

Veriko Tevzadze, a journalist with 24 Hours newspaper in Tbilisi
and Irina Kelekhsayeva, an independent journalist in South Ossetia,
contributed to this article.