Defence Ministry: New rules forbid alcohol, gambling
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The Ministry of Defence of Georgia has developed new rules and strengthened existing rules where members of Georgia’s Armed Forces (GAF) will be immediately dismissed if they’re found to be under the influence of alcohol or engaged in gambling.
The Ministry also annulled the "useless mechanism” of administrative arrest of soldiers if they violated rules, and instead introduced "more effective” penalties by way of cutting the salaries of soldiers’ who broke Ministry rules.
The new rules stated all GAF members who committed an offense would face the same penalties regardless of rank or title.
Furthermore the Ministry rejected outdated, Soviet-time forms of encouragement that praised a soldier who performed, such as hanging their photo on an achievement wall, and said modern standards would be implemented to praise soldiers in a more adequate way.
To learn more, Agenda.ge contacted the Defemce Minister’s Medial Relations Adviser Imeda Darsalia.
Q. How will a soldier be punished if he/she is found under the influence of alcohol or involved in gambling?
A: No matter it is a first violation or not, if found under the influence of alcohol or engaging in gambling, the soldier will be dismissed from the Army.
Q. Are soldiers restricted from drinking alcohol outside of work?
A: If he/she is found under the influence of alcohol within the military unit area, at work or in a military uniform out of work, the soldier will be fired. The Defence Ministry does not restrict GAF members to drink during their leisure time when they are dressed like civilians.
Q. How do you plan to detect violations?
A: The Military Police Department of the Defence Ministry is responsible to detect such offenses.
Now the Government must approve these changes for them to come into force.
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