2300 People Lose Jobs Following Ministry Reorganization

A total of 2300 civil servants have been fired from Georgian Ministries following the reorganization process initiated by the Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, on December 9, 2016, which envisaged reduction of expenses by 10 percent and optimization in the ministries.

The numbers were released by non-governmental organization Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), which presented the results of their survey based on the information of 12 ministries.

The survey shows that as a result of the reorganization process, the total amount of budgetary expenditure decreased by GEL 55,344.000.

The GYLA also says that civil servants were dismissed from only five ministries. The numbers of dismissed people from the state agencies is as follows:

Ministry of Defense - 2250 people

Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees – 20 people

Infrastructure Ministry – 17 people

Ministry of Culture - 11 people

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 2 people.

The total compensation paid to the dismissed employees amounted to 5,322.300 GEL.

However, this is not the full picture of dismissed staff members, as a number of ministries refused to send information about the reorganization to the GYLA.

The GYLA added that five self-governing cities, Kutaisi, Batumi, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti and Poti, reduced budget expenditures by 3,630.000 GEL. The financing of IPs was reduced by 1,220.000 GEL and in total 137 employees were dismissed after IP reorganization.

The NGO says that there were several shortcomings during the reorganization process, though some positive trends were also noted.

Head of the GYLA, Ana Natsvlishvili, stated that the government has yet to discuss the results of the reorganization in parliamentary sessions. She also believes that the government should deliver a report on the process to Parliament.

“In most cases, the dismissal of the public servants was not grounded and the ministries and self-governing towns had different approaches to the reduction of budgetary funds and reorganization,” Natsvlishvili claimed.

The opposition parties also believe that the government should submit a report to Parliament.

“They have to deliver a report to the MPs according to the Constitution. The fact that this has not happened yet means that informal governing has been established,” member of the United National Movement, Nika Rurua, said.

Another opposition party, Movement for Freedom-European Georgia, believes that the optimization process was not transparent.

“People who had no patrons were fired from the ministries,” Irma Nadirashvili from European Georgia stressed.

Prime Minister Kvirikashvili says the Government of Georgia carried out optimization only when and where it was necessary. He does not agree with the assessments of the GYLA.

“What I can say is that I think this is a biased assessment," Kvirikashvili said.

Thea Morrison