The 2013 state budget has increased by a total of GEL 657 million compared to 2012, a rise of 8.1%. The 2013 budget reflects priorities of the new administration, which are agriculture, healthcare and social security, education and science. The government began the process of implementing its commitments in these priority areas in December 2012.
At a January 15, 2013 press-conference Vano Merabishvili, Secretary General of the United National Movement (UNM), warned of an impending budgetary crisis. Below is our examination of the UNM arguments. UNM Secretary General said: A budgetary crisis is setting in, signaled by decrease in tax revenues.
The Georgian Government undertook to fund the municipality of Tbilisi’s social security and medical insurance programmes by decrees #432, #433, #434 on October 19, 2012. These were signed into law by the then acting prime minister Vano Merabishvili in direct violation of Article 40 of the Budget Code, which requires that:
This is the second in a two-part series of blog posts on changes to Georgia's Budget Code. Read the first post here. 1.Lax Responsibility Accounting for Variations between Originally Approved and Revised Appropriations
The Government of Georgia (GoG) switched to programme budgeting as from January 1 2012, which means Georgian state budget needs to be rearranged thematically. The Ministry of Defence appropriation as well as other defence-related expenses, for instance, now need to be put under the programme for Defence and Security.
A number of significant amendments enhancing the powers of the National Bank and Financial Monitoring Service have recently been made to the legislation on financial regulation.