Increased Salaries and Bonuses in Guria

Nino Mshvidobadze, Guria

Public servants in Guria region received bonuses equal to increased salaries in January 2014 (for Christmas Holiday). In accordance to the Georgian legislation, only 25% of local budget can be spent on salaries. However, district budget used to spend almost 40% on the salaries of public servants.

According to the official documents, 142 employees of Ozurgeti district administration received bonuses by January 15, 2014 and total amount of the allocated sum was 46 700 lari. It is noteworthy that Ozurgeti district interim governor Kote Sharashenidze, his deputies Giorgi Gurjumelidze, Irakli Siradze, Kote Sarishvili and head of financial-budget service Aleko Beridze were not on the list of public servants, who received bonuses for the Christmas Holiday. Sharashenidze said it is not problem for him and his deputies to receive or not receive bonuses. “We will take bonuses afterwards, it is not problem at all. It can happen next month or later. We did not give bonuses to the employees in 2013 because there was not enough funds in the budget. As for 2014 budget, the central government, namely the Ministry of Finance, envisaged thirteenth salary in the district budget. So, we gave bonuses to our employees for the Christmas Holiday, who had worked hard in 2013. We did not give bonuses to everybody,” Sharashenidze said. 

28 905 lari was spent on the bonuses of the employees of Ozurgeti municipal board. 

Chairman of the Ozurgeti municipal board Avtandil Surguladze said the bonus fund was envisaged in the district budget. “The bonuses were envisaged in the budget. In fact, we did not issue bonuses to non-contracted personnel. Everybody, who received bonuses for the Christmas and New Year holidays, was official employees of the municipal board.”

As for Lanchkhuti district, salaries of local public servants increased in January 2014. Based on the President’s decree # 726 issued on October 19, 2012, salaries were increased for public servants in every district. According to the changes, upper limit for the salaries of district governor and chairperson of the municipal board was 2 650 lari; maximum salary for the deputy district governor was 1 300 lari; 1 700 lari for deputy board chairperson; maximum salary for the attorneys of territorial entities is 1000 lari; head of service unit at the administration shall have maximum 810 lari; assistant to the governor and other public servants will have 790 lari; junior public servants will have maximum salaries of 560 lari; chairpersons of the commissions at the municipal board and fractions will have maximum salary of 1 350 lari.

Chairman of Lanchkhuti municipal board Amiran Gigineishvili said, the salaries were increased to meet the requirements of the law. “As for the rise in the salaries, in 2012 the President of Georgia issued a decree, based on which upper limits of the salaries for public servants in local self-governments were estimated. 62 out of total 65 municipalities in the countries had already regulated this issue. So, other three districts, including us, had to regulate this issue as well and it was reflected in the 2014 budget.”

Gigineishvili said, since employees of the non-commercial legal entities are not public servants, their salaries will not be regulated in accordance to the president’s decree and their salaries were not changed. Neither leaders of the non-commercial legal entities had their salaries increased. As for bonuses, official information provided by the Lanchkhuti district administration based on the Human Rights Center’s request states that employees of district administration received bonuses for the Christmas Holiday  and 121 980 lari was spent on the purpose. Human Rights Center was notified at the Lanchkhuti district administration, that public servants received bonuses equal to increased salaries on January 7; employees of the municipal board also received bonuses.

Head of Ozurgeti district office of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association Tamaz Trapaidze said the bonuses are distributed according to special rules. “Bonus is a prize for particular merit. They can be distributed for public holidays too. Bonus distribution shall be well grounded decision. The government shall develop special rule for the distribution of bonuses. It is incredible to believe but sometimes public servants ask whether they deserve some bonuses when they are on holidays.”

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association carried out a research with regard to bonus distribution, which revealed following problems:

“A majority of public institutions researched do not have an administrative legal act determining rules for payment of bonuses to their employees. Lack of pre-determined criteria renders it impossible to objectively assess the chiefs’ decisions to issue bonuses to their employees and the amounts of bonuses issued. Accordingly, a number of important questions as to appropriateness of the bonuses paid remain unanswered. Amount of issued bonuses is equal to public servants’ monthly salaries and significantly exceeds the average index of bonuses in the developed countries of the world,” conclusion of the GYLA reads.