Tbilisi Budget 2017 Draft Criticized by City Council Opposition MPs

TBILISI – Minority MPs of Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo) do not approve 2017 budget draft of the capital, published by Tbilisi Mayor, Davit Narmania on Tuesday.

The opposition MPs say that the budget does not cover the citizens’ interests and problems and it is a pre-election document, as the local elections are to be held in 2017.

The opposition United National Movement (UNM) members at Sakrebulo stated they are not going to support the draft budget because the social sphere funding is reduced by 29 million GEL ($11.62 million).

“While unemployment has increased and the majority of our citizens are in extremely critical conditions, the Mayor decided to reduce social funding. This means that he does not know what troubles Tbilisi residents or he just does not care,” the UNM MP is Sakrebulo, Irakli Nadiradze said.

An independent MP of City Council, Alexander Elisashvili also criticizes Mayor’s Office and says that they reduced financing of damaged buildings. Elisashvili also calls on the Mayor to suspend the contract with parking regulatory company C.T. Park, whose work has been disapproved by Tbilisi residents many times and which has the exclusive rights to arrange parking in the capital.

“Traffic problems in Tbilisi will never be solved unless the contract with C.T. Park is suspended. I invite Mayor Narmania to TV debates, where I will prove him that taking such step is necessary,” stated Elisashvili.

The draft budget, implemented by the Mayor’s Office, enlists several priorities. Development of the Tbilisi public transport is the top priority. In this direction Tbilisi City Hall plans to allocate over 62 million GEL ($25 million) while the total budget will be over 800 million GEL ($322 million).

Moreover, the budget draft also includes infrastructural projects and maintaining the historic districts of the city as well as building more kindergartens, and transforming Tbilisi into a greener and more ecologically-friendly city.

The draft budget also envisages reduction of the administrative costs by 16.1 million GEL ($6.44 million) and sharply reducing fund of bonuses by 9.3 million GEL ($3.72million).

Tbilisi City Council MPs have time until December 31 to approve or disapprove Tbilisi Budget for the next year.

By Thea Morrison