Press Digest 27.06.2014

Salaries High Officials reduced by several thousand – “soon they will presumably label a bonus as some kind of “incentive,” or “stimulus fund”

"From now on, the employees of public service, including high officials, will receive bonuses that will not exceed their salaries; officials will get bonuses only once in a quarter of each year. As for the corrupt practice of distributing employment benefits, a solution to this issue has not been provided thus far,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“As you know the issue of bonuses has triggered a massive backlash from the public. The Government mulled over this subject and passed a diktat drafted by the National Bureau of Public Service at yesterday’s session. “Bonuses given out to our officials must not exceed their salary; any decisions regarding this can be made by a Minister,” declared Ekaterine Kardava, Head of the National Bureau of the Public Service. This law is applicable only to the officials of the executive government; it does not work when it comes to local self-government, legislative and judicial branches of the government,” the article says.

“As Deputy Head of the Government’s Administration, Nino Kobakhidze, announces, on July 1, the Public service Bureau will hold a presentation at which they will present a common conception, one of the constituents of which is a diktat on the officials’ bonuses. “After this presentation, all questions swirling round this issue will be answered,” stated Nino Kobakhidze. To the question whether or not a new law will provide a solution to the issue of fringe benefits, Ms. Kobakhidze replied that at the presentation, they will shed light on the issue of salaries, bonuses and fringe benefits in different bodies, as different rules apply to each of them,” reads the paper.

“As per the newly drafted law, bonuses will be given out once in a quarter of a year; this is not mandatory though; everyone knows that a bonus is a sum of money granted or given to an employee in addition to regular pay, usually in appreciation for work well done, length of service, accumulated favors etc. And thus an official must enjoy a bonus, only if a Minister or other high official decides to give him or her credit for a well-done job. Hence, the first Deputy Minister, whose salary is 2,950 GEL will get a bonus of 11,800 GEL per year. This means that the Ministers salary including bonuses will run up to 47,200. This law will also be applicable to other high officials working in the public service agencies. Earlier to this, Deputy Minister’s enjoyed much higher salaries,” writes the author of the article.

“Rather positive changes have been drawn in this direction. This sphere was totally out of hand before now. Unfortunately, the recently drafted diktat is applicable only to public service agencies. It will be immensely favorable for us if such regulations will be passed in local self-government bodies too. As for the employment benefits, I do hope that this sphere will be regulated after the conception of the Public Service reform comes into affect. For now, they must simply strictly monitor everything and prevent them from replacing bonuses with employment benefits,” states the head of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, Giorgi Kldiashvili.

“This immensely grave issue cannot be settled only by some kind of bonus distribution law. This sphere must be systematically regulated…In the present state of affairs, I really do not rule out that tomorrow they will label a bonus as some kind of “incentive,” or “stimulus fund,” especially when a decision regarding this subject can be made by the head of the Ministry,” declares lawyer Levan Alapishvili.