giorgi_margvelashvili

President Giorgi Margvelashvili. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–President Giorgi Margvelashvili will get increased salary next year, but the increase is less than previously planned.

The president’s salary will go up from 4 720 to 6 900 lari (USD 3 900), according to new draft, which parliament is reviewing. Previously, the new salary was was to have been 9 000 lari (USD 5 100).

Member of Parliament Davit Saganelidze from the Georgian Dream coalition explains that the president didn’t share the idea of increasing his salary to 9 000 lari and decided to correct the draft so that heads of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court will receive higher salary than the president. According to the new draft, the heads of the two top courts will be paid 7 000 lari per month.

He said the salary and expenses of the president must be transparent and people must know how their elected president is living and whether he has the means to maintain his family, as well as host official guests and have formal relations.

“Unfortunately, if we look at Georgia’s history, this has always been vague. The income of Georgian presidents was very low in documents, no-one spoke about it, but presidents always had means to spend money on what they wanted,” the MP explained to journalists.

Margvelashvili’s salary is currently 4 720 lari (USD 2 716).