Georgian minister's salary

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

In the novel Data Tutashkhia by the living classic writer of Georgian literature, Chabua Amirejiba, one of the characters says: "There is no salary that would be enough for a man. A person should be sufficient for the salary." That character - Mushni Zarandia - was a civil servant. More precisely, a senior officer of the imperial gendarmerie. He means that the small size of an allowance cannot push an honest man to bribery. On the other hand, huge salaries too, are no guarantee - there is no such thing as extra money.

President Saakashvili and his team decided to combine the two components after they came to power: on the one hand, they announced a relentless fight against corruption, and on the other, they significantly increased the salaries of civil servants., including the top executives - ministers, deputy ministers, and heads of departments. If in 2003, at the end of the Shevardnadze era, a minister's salary was only 160 laris (about $100) a month, already in 2004 it grew to 3,540 laris ($2170). However, in reality, ministerial monthly income was much higher.

In fact, heads of departments had the right every month, or even several times a month, to give all employees bonuses, including themselves, up to the size of their monthly salary. Thus, for example, the monthly income of Prime Minister Nika Gilauri was GEL 12,679 ($7778), of the State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration, Giorgi Baramidze - GEL 10,200 ($6257) and so on. Apparently, President Saakashvili was inclined to believe that significant revenue was an important and necessary guard against the temptation to abuse their position of power for personal enrichment. But the "pink revolutionaries" came to power on a wave of popular social discontent, and the "common people" somehow did not grasp the difference between corruption and a "legal windfall", especially given their own plight.

Social inequality, or rather a sense of social injustice and latent discontent with the "chic elite" was one of the most important resources of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili during the election campaign. In fact, there is no paradox here, as Georgian society distinguishes between businessmen and officials, even if the first one handles billions and lives in a castle worth $200 million, while an official "only" gets a high salary and huge bonuses by local standards.

To fulfil his election promises and restore order in this sphere, Prime Minister Ivanishvili ordered to "reduce the monthly income of ministers by 12%." It would seem that the decision is simple and requires no further comment, but in fact, for several days already, political analysts, experts and representatives of the ruling coalition and the opposition are arguing over whether ministers' salaries have decreased or on the contrary, have grown, and to what extent the authorities kept their promise to "straighten out the bureaucracy."

The fact is that now government ministers will receive GEL 6300 ($3865). Naturally, this is a much higher monthly salary compared to a minister's salary from the administration of President Saakashvili. What can one say about the cuts? It turns out that the same order prohibits giving out bonus awards more often than once a year. Moreover, now not all employees of the ministry, starting with the minister himself, but only those who have achieved extra success at work are to receive the bonus. It turns out that it is not the salary, but the real income of ministers that actually  is reduced by 12%, and monthly premiums are simply included in the salary. But given the fact that there is continuing deflation, the income of senior officials has been reduced by only 9 to 9.5%.

All these figures do not tell us much if they are not compared to the average wage in the country. By the end of 2012 it was about 800 GEL ($490). Both in the public and private sectors. Economists argue that compared to GDP (just over $4350 per capita) 800 GEL is a pretty high salary. In other countries with similar GDP it is even lower. But the problem of Georgia is catastrophic unemployment, in some areas it reaches 50-60%.

Leaders of the ruling coalition called on the population to take "with understanding" the decision on the inclusion of bonuses in the minister's salaries. Otherwise, if the old practice of issuing awards (it caused the greatest discontent of the population) was simply banned, the salary would be halved. Of course, it is possible to live on a salary of $2170 and have not a bad life. But because it concerns not just ministers, but all civil servants who now cannot regularly get fantastic bonuses, wage cuts could affect their motivation. Moreover, they could have accepted such a reduction as a certain "internal justification" for the creative search for new ways and opportunities to maintain the same level of income.

In such a manner the new government managed to skillfully combine the fulfillment of its promises with the conservation of financial incentives for middle and senior level officials, thus agreeing with the fact that even though a person "should be sufficient for the salary," but rigid and repressive measures to fight corruption are not enough. Moreover, the anti-corruption policy of the new authorities is not very different from the one of Saakashvili's team - almost weekly in various regions officials are taken into custody and found guilty of malicious misuse of their official positions. In the Chohataursk area, the arrests of local administration representatives resulted in a show similar to the ones that were held by the "revolutionaries" in 2004-2005. Apparently, the security forces of Ivanishvili felt that the educational value of these shows has not been reduced in Georgia, even after the change of power. However, if we were to refrain from the constant comparison of the political styles of Saakashvili and Ivanishvili, it is clear that the fight against corruption in Georgia, given the specificity of the Caucasian and local social features, is a problem for more than one generation of politicians.