Mayor declines opposition’s advice regarding the budget
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Thursday, November 12
Mayor of Tbilisi Davit Narmania, declined the opposition’s recommendations over the Tbilisi city budget.
“The opposition has no idea what the budget parameters are and what the total budget is. Due to this, we cannot take their opinions into account. The only opinion I am interested is society’s opinion, and I am only accountable to them,” stated Narmania.
Narmania’s statement came in response to recommendations from the members of the United National Movement (UNM).
The UNM presented their view on budget separation for the upcoming year to the Mayor’s Office. Irakli Abesadze and Sevdia Ugrekhelize, representatives of the UNM in Tbilisi City Hall, held a press conference and discussed ways to improve living standards in the city.
According to them, to improve the situation, the Mayor’s Office should provide infrastructural projects to solve traffic jam problems, as well as increase privileges for socially vulnerable individuals, increase salaries for public transport drivers, the Mayor’s Office technical staff, and several other groups of people they deem to be underpaid.
“Narmania pays over 5, 625 GEL monthly to his employees for PR. This amount is equal to two years salary for kindergarten staff. That is why we demand an increase of salaries for those people who actually work,” stated Abesadze.
According to him, for any proposed project, only 100 million GEL should be allocated. However, the UNM does not expect that the Mayor’s Office will take their recommendations into account.
“We gave offers last year too, but they ignored all of them,” stated Ugrekhelidze.
The Chairman of City Hall, Giorgi Alibegashvili, said that a preliminary budget discussion was already held with the Municipal Council and some agreements regarding the financial organization have already been reached.
The 2016 budget will be presented to the City Council for consideration on November 15.
