Director of Pension Agency Levan Surguladze resigns

The director of the pension agency Levan Surguladze has announced on the briefing on December 9 that he is planning to resign beginning January 16. Supervisory Board has approved his decision. Surguladze has been chairing the Pension Agency since September 2018.

“I applied to the Supervisory Board a week ago, asking whether I could resign beginning January 16. That was about a week ago. The Supervisory Board will consider this statement and make a decision,” said Surguladze.

At the briefing, he summarized the results of his one-year work with the pension agency and repeatedly stressed that the agency was now ‘working properly’. He has been working on Accumulated Pension Program past year, a pension reform that urges citizens to transfer some of their salary which they will have access to after the retirement age.

He has yet to announce the reason for his resignation.

The Supervisory Board chooses and appoints the competition, and also dismisses the Director of the Pension Agency, which manages the Pension Agency's activities. The Director of the Pension Agency is appointed for a term of 5 years.

To the question, if the pension reform will be affected by his resignation or not, Surguladze responded that the reform is 'successfully developing' and that he supports it.

Accumulated Pension Program will be mandatory for employed citizens above 40 and voluntary for people who turned 40 before the declaration. As for the self-employed, they will voluntarily join the system regardless of their age.

According to the accumulated pensions bill, the monthly contribution for employees will be untaxed 2%, and for self-employed citizens- 4% of their salary. The state will additionally transfer 2% of taxable income in favor of both the employed and the self-employed. 2% will be transferred to employees from their employers.