Georgia starts to economize on costs of officials

Georgia starts to economize on costs of officials

The Georgian government has decided to reduce its costs in order to save budgetary funds and not cut spending on infrastructure projects and social benefits in conditions of financial crisis in the country.

 

The cost of repairs, purchase of furniture and cars, trips and vacations of officials will be minimized. The Cabinet requested that the Parliament, courts and municipalities do the same thing.

 

Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed Russian experts, who expressed doubts that the reduction in government spending will provide substantial assistance to the Georgian economy. 

 

The head of the Institute of Management Strategy, Petre Mamradze, expressed confidence that this decision is political. "The benefits to the economy will be very small, I guess it was designed for propaganda effect," he said.

 

"Unfortunately, the coming to power of Georgian Dream caused rows, because its members gave themselves bonuses, bought expensive cars, and so on. When the budget deficit was increased by 300 million GEL for bonuses and salary increases for the coalition alone, the population started to protest. So now this measure is primarily a propaganda component," Peter Mamradze said.

 

The head of the Center for Global Studies, Nana Devdariani, agreed with Mamradze. "Of course, it has nothing to do with the economy directly. But, on the other hand, we must remember that the majority of voters were dissatisfied with the continuation of the practice of higher monthly premiums. This decision is aimed at calming down voters," she noted. According to her, the government also forced to take into account certain pressure from the opposition.


The director of 'Georgian Business Insight' (BPI), Irakli Lekvinadze, in turn, believes that such a move will help to reduce the deficit of the Georgian budget. "But this measure alone won't help, they need radical reforms that will neutralize the influence of external shocks in Georgia, because the government planned that due to privatization the budget revenues would grow, and the packages that they have announced, include the liberalization of the business environment," the expert said.

 

"Most important thing that will help us to neutralize external shocks is the financiers who have started to come to Georgia. Some projects will start soon in the field of power engineering, logistics and construction. Together with the decrease in the expenditure budget this will help stabilize the Georgian economy, as well as the neutralization of external shocks, which influence not only Georgia but also all countries in the region," Irakli Lekvinadze concluded.

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