NEW GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT CONFIRMED, ANNOUNCES PROGRAM
On October 25, Georgia’s parliament approved Bidzina Ivanishvili as prime minister with 88 votes against 54. On the same ballot, parliament passed the government’s new composition and its program, envisaging comprehensive shifts in key policy areas that involve constitutional and structural changes.
The first section of the program declares that recently amended parts of the constitution must be reverted in order to establish a correct model of governance and eschew the possibility of an autocratic regime. Georgia’s aspiration to integrate with the European Union and NATO remain foreign policy priorities. However, the program also says that Georgia will attempt to start a dialogue with Russia through international mechanisms, in an effort to elaborate a strategy to overcome the existing crisis between two countries. Public diplomacy, economic and joint business projects, and encouragement of people-to-people contacts with Abkhazians and Ossetians are conceived as means for conflict resolution.
The program says that the country’s economic policy will follow the universal principles of free market economies and will rest upon a model of sustainable development. To bolster Georgia’s global competitiveness, the economy should be structurally modernized through encouragement of export and import substitution measures, which is an integral part of modernization, the document reads. The promotion of agriculture and small and medium enterprises, as well as pension and healthcare reforms will be priorities of the economic and social policies. To this end, fiscal rules will be relieved, production costs minimized, “monopolistic prices” on raw materials slashed and a GEL 1 billion fund for agricultural development created, the document says.
The program also vows that “at the first stage of the [healthcare] reform, all citizens will have the universal basic package of health insurance.” The retirement saving system, implying mandatory pension insurance, will operate along with the state-funded system whereas monthly pensions will equal the subsistence minimum. Through the program, the new government also claims to recalculate and lower communal tariffs and remove the current 20% income tax for those whose income is limited to the minimum subsistence level.
The document foresees a drawdown in the ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to two Departments of Police and Border Guard and to create an Anti-Corruption Agency as well as a Bureau for Reforms and Development responsible for the long-term development strategy. In addition, a State Security Service, in charge of collecting and analyzing secret information, will be formed and operate independently from the MIA. Consequently, the authoritative Special Operative Department (SOD), dealing with weapons and cargo smuggling, organized crime, trafficking in drugs and humans, money laundering and extortion; and the Constitutional Security Department (CSD), handling corruption among officials, terrorism-related crimes and threats to the constitutional order, will be abolished. The functions of these departments will be delegated to other structural bodies of the ministry.
Unlike the MIA, The ministry of Defense is not exposed to any significant structural adjustments. The program says that the parliament will keep a close watch on defense spending while the ministry itself will be required to report to the legislative body regularly. The program also envisages the introduction of a military ombudsman liable to supervise the army. The system of conscription will be fully reformed to underpin the base for the reserve service set to be led by the National Guard.
Furthermore, the program envisages preserving the prosecutor’s office within the Justice Ministry as an independent enforcement body, headed by a chief prosecutor instead of a minister. Correspondingly, the president will appoint and parliament will approve a chief prosecutor candidate who can be dismissed either through impeachment procedures or a presidential order requiring the parliament’s consent.
The program also declares that the judiciary will be freed from state pressure. To this end, the system’s institutional and financial independence, as well as the full transparency and publicity of judicial proceedings will be ensured. The criminal justice system will undergo changes through the imposition of concurrent, instead of consecutive, sentencing. The practice of plea bargaining will be maintained, but in a somewhat modified form “to make it fairer,” the program says.
During a parliamentary hearing the day before the approval of a new cabinet and the program, Ivanishvili was asked by the parliamentary minority – United National Movement (UNM) – how much it would cost the government to implement the projects outlined in the program.
Ivanishvili could specify neither the amount of money needed in order to carry out the program, nor the date when the implementation of the different projects are set to start. He said that he was not aware of state budget details but in case the budget proves insufficient to fully cover the program costs, Ivanishvili plans to complement deficits through his personal funds.
“We are probably the first country in the world where the [incoming] PM says that he is not aware of the [resources available in the] state budget and that he will finance healthcare and agriculture with his own money,” said Giorgi Gabashvili, a UNM lawmaker. Giorgi Baramidze, another UNM representative and the former state minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, criticized Ivanishvili for not mentioning “a single word that Georgia’s territories are occupied” in the program.
