While territorial patronage systems had already been observed before reforms, respondents claimed nepotism was present to a higher degree with the relocation of decision-making authority to local bodies under decentralisation.
The bodies of Vilna Gaon and several members of his immediate family were relocated, after receiving special permission from the Soviet authorities; this relocation has been the subject of historical controversy.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have backed their claims, saying there is no justification for the relocation and chastising the authorities for the lack of transparency in their planning.
A seemingly rational institutional response to the situation facilitated the hasty approval of the permanent relocation program by government authorities at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Tong said that Kiribati had not mentioned relocation to the Fijian authorities when it bought the land but that Fijian President Epeli Nailatikau had said "Fiji will welcome you" if it were ever necessary.
Eustacia Isaac, 32, a relocation specialist for the housing authority, said that many workers at the agency were expected to help the mayor by collecting petition signatures and attending rallies.
At first, Mr. Ortiz denied that the relocation service hired by the authority, a national real estate company called O. R. Colan Associates, had suggested that residents move outside their district, which stretches from East 59th Street to East 96th Street.
Jack Murphy, a spokesman for the authority, said the relocations are part of a continuing money-saving strategy.
Bostwana's authorities say that relocation was voluntary and that diamonds had nothing to do with it: traditional hunting had given way to poaching for profit and to livestock rearing; the Bushmen, says the government, were bad for the park's wildlife conservation.
Such information supported our doubts on the reliability of the traditional risk assessment approach, which was practised by the Hamburg harbour authorities at the relocation sites in the North Sea.
That May, the authorities began the relocation of the Jews to the Iris ghetto.
