Government to set limits on prices of public servants' cars

State institutions will only purchase cars under the common standards. The Chancellery of the Georgian Government has already started working on the regulations, according to Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

Garibashvili said that the Chancellery started creating the general standards back in the period when Bidzina Ivanishvili was Prime Minister.

"These standards will concretely regulate which public servant is supposed to have what kind of car. It will never happen again that a lot of expensive cars had been bought in the previous years. When I was Interior Minister, I alienated a lot of expensive and not economical cars. Even today, cars are bought in a chaotic way because there is no general standard for this. All the Ministries will purchase cars under these regulations, Garibashvili said.

This became an actual issue last week after the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Adjara Autonomous Republic, Avtandil Beridze announced a tender to purchase a Toyota Prado produced in 2014 for GEL 83,000 (about 49,000 USD).

During the past year, Beridze had been driven in a Toyota Prado and Toyota Camry produced in 2012, but he said that he then needed a better car, providing the argument that otherwise he could not reach the mountainous locations of Adjara.

The central government criticized Avtandil Beridze for spending the budget money on luxury items.

"We do not mind to provide officials with the things that they need for their service, but it should be happening in accordance of the countrys general situation, they said, implying that there was no need of luxury cars.

As a result, the Chairman of the Adjara Supreme Council had to cancel the tender.