Bonuses to Issue Seven Times in Local Self-Governmental Bodies – Noisy Session of the City Council

Lado Bichashvili, Shida Kartli

On November 19, City Council passed the resolution on the amount of bonuses to be issued in Gori Municipality with ten votes v five. When discussing the issue, the City Council relied on the Resolution # 449 of the Government of Georgia issued on July 15, 2014 and determined time and amount of the bonus in the City Hall and City Council. According to the Resolution, the bonuses will be paid once in a quarter; besides that, city mayor and chairman of the city council can issue three more bonuses on religious holidays. Finally, the local authority can issue seven bonuses and the amount of the bonus shall not exceed the amount of monthly salary.

During the discussion, member of the fraction Georgian Party Ramaz Ioseliani reminded the members of the Georgian Dream of their criticism of the United National Movement [for paying high bonuses to public officials]. Ioseliani said the population did not elect the current government to take bonuses seven times per year.

Mindia Goderdzishvili from UNM: “If you estimate that bonuses can be paid seven times per year, it automatically means that this possibility will be realized in practice. I think seven bonuses per year is too much.”

Several opposition members of the city council said relatives, party mates and friends will receive bonuses and not hard-working employees; deputy chairperson of the city council immediately responded to him.

Nino Zurabishvili, deputy chairperson of the city council: “It complies with the resolution of the government and the law; we have not invented anything new. When UNM was in authority, they issued bonuses every month and now we try to reduce it to seven. If an employee works more than his/her colleagues, she/he must get the bonus for that.”

The discussion was conducted in the noisy environment. Members of the Georgian Party and UNM did not participate in the poll and did not vote for the resolution. Members of the Free Democrats, Democratic Movement and Labor Party helped the resolution from rejection. After the members of Free Democrats left the Coalition in Gori City Council, Georgian Dream lost majority in the council.