“Today, the salary of a parliamentary faction or committee chair is 13,600 GEL, and the Speaker of Parliament’s salary has reached 17,000 GEL. You have to be incredibly arrogant to do this while increasing pensions by only 20 GEL,” said opposition politician Roman Gotsiridze on PalitraNewss’ program Resume.

According to him, the bureaucracy in Georgia is living in unimaginable luxury, and the budget recently approved by Parliament, in Gotsiridze’s view, is “a squandering budget.”

“How many times has the pension increased in Georgia over the past 13 years? It’s a catastrophic figure. During these 13 years of governance, nothing humiliating or shameful has been done to address this. When the pension was 125 GEL and became 350 GEL, how many times did it increase? Roughly speaking, threefold. But in reality, if you adjust the 350 GEL pension for price increases and bring it to the purchasing power of 2012, it has only increased by 65 GEL over 13 years. Today’s 350 GEL is equivalent to 190 GEL in 2012 prices. This means the pension increased only about 6 GEL per year.

I was a member of Parliament and had the highest salary after the Speaker and Vice-Speaker. I was a political group chair and earlier a faction chair. I was receiving a net salary of 3,500 GEL.

Within one year, salaries were increased twice, and now the regular MP salary has doubled. In one year, the regular MP’s salary became 12,800 GEL. Today, the salary for faction and committee chairs is 13,600 GEL, and the Speaker’s salary has reached 17,000 GEL. You have to be unbelievably brazen to do this while pensions increase by only 20 GEL.

Georgia is the only country in the entire Eurasian, including post-Soviet, space where a regular MP’s salary is 30 times higher than the average pension. The next country, where the pension-to-MP salary ratio is high, is Russia, at 24 times. In Europe, the only country where a parliamentarian’s salary is 10 times higher than the average pension is Hungary.

In all EU countries, except Hungary, an MP’s salary is about 4–7 times higher than the average pension.

This is what is visible. What is not visible? Now, new cars are being purchased. Every ministry will have new cars, and Parliament plans to renew its fleet. Every other MP in the Georgian Parliament has a personal car.

Bureaucracy in Georgia lives in unimaginable luxury. Hundreds of millions are spent on luxury and business trips. When one guest arrives, twenty people accompany them to the restaurant, which is called a representative expense. The budget they have just approved is a squandering budget,” said Roman Gotsiridze.