The fact that most of the funds allocated for the Patriarch’s funeral had not been spent was known to us from the outset, - Head of the Public Relations Service of the Patriarchate of Georgia, Archpriest Andria Jaghmaidze, wrote on social media, responding to the Prime Minister’s statement regarding the Patriarch’s funeral. The Prime Minister said that GEL 3 million had been allocated for the funeral, of which only GEL 722,000 was spent.

According to Jaghmaidze, organizations and private individuals mostly declined to accept fees or salaries for various services.

“We knew from the outset that most of the funds allocated for the Patriarch’s funeral had not been spent. During that period in particular, we were in frequent communication with Ms. Tika Rukhadze, and it was from her that we learned that organizations and private individuals had mostly declined to accept fees or payment for various services.

The Prime Minister publicly confirmed this, and I hope that the use of the Patriarch’s name for unfounded accusations and slander will now come to an end,” Jaghmaidze wrote.

For context, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on the Rustavi 2 television program that, according to preliminary data, GEL 3 million had been allocated for the Patriarch’s funeral, of which only GEL 722,000 was spent, adding that “if someone had wanted to steal money, they would have made good use of the entire GEL 3 million.”

Meanwhile, Transparency International Georgia issued a statement calling for the disclosure of information about how the funds allocated for Ilia II’s funeral were spent.

The statement says that it is not publicly known what portion of the GEL 722,600 spent by the Ministry of Culture was paid through contractors, which companies received the contracts, what services they provided, the amounts paid, or on what grounds they were selected. It is also unknown how the other five government agencies spent their respective allocations.

“On March 20, the government allocated a total of GEL 5.59 million from the reserve fund to six government agencies to organize the funeral ceremony of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, including GEL 3 million for the Ministry of Culture. According to the Ministry of Finance’s state budget execution reports, the Ministry of Culture spent only GEL 722,600 of this amount. Following the funeral ceremony, on May 8, the government amended the decree on the allocation of funds from the reserve fund, aligning it with the actual expenditures and reducing the amounts allocated. Under the new decree, the amount allocated to the Ministry of Culture was reduced to exactly GEL 722,600, while the total package was reduced to GEL 2.56 million,” the statement said.