Parliamentary faction Christian Democratic Movement demands that the government presents statistics about an employment program implemented before the elections in 2006.

Levan Vepkhvadze, representative of the Christian Democrats made this statement at a debate in parliament Friday regarding the government’s ’10 point plan’.

The plan was brought in during the campaigning period ahead of the local elections in 2006. Within the frameworks of the plan, two hundred thousand unemployed were ‘attached’ to private enterprises and were paid 200 lari each as ‘salary’ from the state for a three month period.

Vepkhvadze brought up the five-year old program because the government now has a new initiative, which excempts people from 45 to 60 years old of income tax for one year, if they are able to find work within a six months’ window of time. Vepkhvadze is sure that the new initiative, just like the first one, is targetted only at harvesting votes and not increasing employment.

“Let the government present appropriate statistics for the 200 000 people, which were involved in the employment program in 2006 and received 200 lari for three months. How many of them are employed today? Employment even for a short period is not bad, and people who will be employed under the new program, should know now that when they vote for you in the 2012 elections, they will be asked to pay enterprise income tax and then they will have to go home,” Vepkhvadze said.