This article was originally published in Russian by
Radio Azadliq.
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hairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Affairs of Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov met with chairmen whose companies will build a new settlement in the village of Jojug Marjanli, in Jabrayil region, on February 13.
Jojug Marjanli was recently recaptured in the 4-Day-War of April 2016.
On January 24 of this year, President Ilham Aliyev allocated four million manat from the President’s Reserve Fund for the construction of fifty homes and a school for the returned residents of the village. Roads, electricity, water and gas infrastructure will also be provided for.
The project aims to construct 20 two-room, 25 three-room and 5 four-room apartments in the village.
However, a surface-level analysis of the available figures gives rise to a number of questions regarding the cost established by the presidential decree and thus the anticipated quality of the construction.
And Ali Hasanov’s state committee probably doesn’t want a repeat of the bitter story of construction of homes for refugees in Georgia.
There, in 2008, 1,263 cottages were built for the price of 27,200 lari each with the financing of the European Union and the World Bank.
However, the construction of the homes was of such low quality that (the doors ‘hung in the air’, wind blew through the cracks between the walls and windows, etc) an additional 4-8 thousand lari had to be spent per cottage in order to ‘renovate’ the homes.
In the end, the average cost of the cottages grew to 34,000 lari, which according to the 1.4-1.6 lari/dollar exchange rate to the dollar, comes out to about 23,000 dollars.
And so, what can we expect for the homes of refugees who are now returning to Jojug Marjanli?
State Committee Chairman Ali Hasanov during his meeting today demanded quality from contractors.
Responding to questions from Radio Azadliq, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Affairs of Refugees and IDPs Fuad Huseynov, said that the cost of each of the future homes in Jojug Marjanli has yet to be determined, because they haven’t yet finished mine-clearing work in the vicinity of the village and other issues are also unclear.
But will 4 million manat be enough?
If these funds are spent reasonably, frugally, and, of course, if we believe that the money will not be stolen, four million manat is sufficient for the construction of fairly high-quality residential buildings, a school and infrastructure for villagers in Jabrayil District.
How will things turn out in reality? This will become clear with time. Our mention of embezzlement is not accidental, if we recall that in December 2016 the deputy Chingiz Ganizade was accused in Azerbaijan’s parliament by the state committee’s chairman, Ali Hasanov, of embezzling state funds allocated for the needs of refugees.
Enver Melikov
