NGOs of Georgia oppose politically motivated expenditures from the budget

Non-governmental organization “Transparency International – Georgia” made public its survey of the current year’s state budget. This data is open and published by mass media. The authors of the survey presented on July, 20, draw public attention to “politically motivated expenditures from state budget of the country”.

It should be reminded that the Parliament of Georgia sanctioned changes to this year’s state budget of the country in full session on May, 22, increasing the revenue by 200,6 million lari (about 123 million dollars).

On July, 4, the Georgian Parliament enacted a new structure of the Cabinet of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Ivane Merabishvili and a new governmental program increasing state pensions from 100 to 125 lari for retirees over 67 since this September.

“One will certainly notice that the program of increasing pensions and mass underwriting starts a month before parliamentary election”, Eka Gigaury, Executive Director of “Transparency International – Georgia”, declared.

The practice of the latest years showed that the trends in budget expenditure in the election year differ from ordinary ones and the budget is generally aimed at short-term populist social projects, Head of the project of the survey of the budget Nino Khatiskatsi considers.

Tamar Kintsurashvili, member of Interdepartmental Committee for national security and support of fair election, considered the report inaccurate and explained the extension of the programs by an increase of the budget itself by 229 million lari, not the election.