Irakli Kobakhidze: Although my salary is important to me, I am ready to forgo the planned increases, but if you pay a minister less, you are pushing them toward corruption and telling them: “Go and make money for yourself!”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze made the remarks in response to criticism over the planned salary increases for public officials, at a time when pensions for people under the age of 70 were set to rise by GEL 20.

“Although my salary is important to me, I am ready to forgo the increases planned for the coming years. I say this with full responsibility: if you pay a minister less than they currently earn, you are pushing them toward corruption and telling them, ‘Go on, go and make money for yourself!’” Kobakhidze said.

The Prime Minister noted that even if the salaries of all state officials were theoretically eliminated and the money redirected to pensioners, pensions would increase by less than GEL 3.

“I want to tell you that if we add up all these salaries and imagine that not a single state official receives any salary at all, pensions would increase by less than GEL 3. As for the total amount of these salaries, it accounts for less than 0.1% of the state budget.

“Although my salary is important to me, I am ready to forgo the increases planned for the coming years. This may cause some inconvenience—for example, the head of a department in a particular ministry might end up earning more than I do—but I am prepared for that.

“I am biased when it comes to myself, so let me turn to ministers. I say this with full responsibility: if you pay a minister less than they currently earn—which is probably around GEL 12,000 after taxes—you are encouraging corruption.

“Meanwhile, salaries in the private sector have increased dramatically. Given the work a minister does and the responsibilities they bear, someone in an equivalent position in the private sector would earn at least GEL 50,000 to GEL 100,000. If you pay a minister less than GEL 12,000, you are effectively telling them, ‘Go on, go and make money for yourself!’” Kobakhidze said.

Asked whether members of the previous government had been encouraged to engage in corruption before the salary indexation, the Prime Minister said that their salaries had not been commensurate with the challenges they faced and the responsibilities they carried.

“I would like to remind you that during the previous government, Bidzina Ivanishvili personally used his own funds to finance salary supplements for public servants. This was an anti-corruption measure. In other words, providing public officials with adequate salaries is considered an anti-corruption measure.

“When we talk about the ratio between pensions and the salaries of public officials, this is pure speculation,” Kobakhidze said.