Up to GEL 400 million was spent without producing real results — this is how healthcare management specialist Vato Surguladze assesses the government’s employment program for socially vulnerable citizens. According to him, the program was highly ineffective and served primarily political purposes. He argues that the Ministry of Health must present a detailed report showing how many beneficiaries were actually employed in the private sector.
Surguladze says the program was intended to retrain vulnerable individuals in high-demand professions so they could secure real jobs, but that did not happen. Instead, he cites examples such as 124 caretakers being listed as employed at Tianeti Cemetery and receiving GEL 300 monthly regardless of whether work existed. “This is not employment,” he notes, adding that the government now plans to place 600 people in LEPLs and N(N)LEs - which again means public-sector jobs funded by the state.
He argues that employment initiatives are used politically: “If you support them politically, you get help; if not, you lose your job.” Surguladze stresses that meaningful employment should come from the private sector, not state-funded placements.
According to him, if the economy is truly growing as the government claims, people should not be leaving Georgia to work in Italy, Spain, or the U.S. “Believe me, people would rather work here if the jobs were dignified,” he concludes.
