Gov’t establishes maximum salary bonus cap

A unified system to cap salary bonuses will be created for people working in Government structures after information leaked claiming Corrections staff had received cash bonuses reaching 40,000 GEL.

Georgian Health Minister David Sergeenko announced the move following a Government meeting today.

Announcement of the new initiative was triggered by a leak of information two days ago that revealed Corrections Department staff could be offered high bonuses.

"Work with regard to the bonus system has already begun, and not only because of this case. We are working to introduce a unified bonus system, which will have certain logic – a maximum upper limit. This will be the analogue of what we had with regard to the cars,” Sergeenko said.

According to the leaked information, Corrections Department employees of the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance have received large cash bonuses up to 40,000 GEL.

Corrections Minister Sozar Subari responded to this allegation and said he had not approved such bonuses and the leaked information was "absolutely ungrounded and unjustified”.

"In general, the Corrections Department is a sub-agency of the Ministry, which means that it has an independent budget and the Department issues bonuses independently. However, generally it cannot be justified that this happened without the consent of the Minister,” Subari said.

"We had a very strict response and I demanded immediate responses,” he said, adding two Corrections Department employees had been fired.

Other Government officials also commented on the case, describing the fact as "unacceptable.”

"Given the social situation in the country, it is unacceptable to issue high bonuses,” said Vice Prime Minister and Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze.