TBILISI, DFWatch – Saakashvili’s main competitor Bidzina Ivanishvili says he does not trust the government’s official data about the amount of losses due to an extreme storm on July 19.

Ivanishvili says his opposition Georgian Dream coalition is ready to start calculating losses in parallel with the official numbers.

The Georgian government is still counting losses affected by the storm, which currently stands at 150 million lari, or about USD 91 million.

Ivanishvili Sunday visited Kakheti and met with the affected population.

Maia Panjikidze, spokesperson for Georgian Dream, said Monday that ‘the losses are ten times more than government offers as help to the population.’

She says extending bank credits to the affected farmers for one year is not enough, because it is necessary to plant new seedlings in their fields, which were destroyed. Then it will take at least two years to get a harvest from these farms and it is necessary to prolong credits longer.

«Bidzina Ivanishvili warned the population that there is enough money in the state budget to help them, which he has transferred, and the government shouldn’t dare and say that they do not have enough money to help.”