PM announces pension system regulation for law enforcement, defence professionals

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Tuesday said his office would reveal a new decision about the regulation of the pension system for the country’s law enforcement and defence sector, pledging to ensure additional efforts for providing “decent working conditions” to employees in his comments for Veterans’ Day. 

Expressing his respect to the professionals of the related structures and highlighting their “devotion” and “dedication” to the country, the head of the Government said the Georgian Dream authorities had done “their utmost” over the past 11 years to ensure “dignified” conditions to current and retired professionals.

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He noted the efforts included ₾125 million ($47 mln) budget expenses for annual health insurance of law enforcement and defence retirees, noting “no such service” was present under the previous Government. 

Garibashvili said the state also spent ₾40 million ($15 mln) annually for compensation of military veterans and ₾25 million ($10 mln) for “various services” related to them, while families of those killed during conflicts received a ₾1,000 ($371) monthly compensation. 

The Government spends about ₾200 million ($74 mln) annually for the needs of veterans. We can say [that] the current authorities have dramatically improved the situation for them, whether it is their social security guarantees or improving other conditions”, Garibashvili said. 

The PM also called the veteran status “one of the most honourable” recognition for “defending the country and its people” through “self-sacrifice”. 

Koba Kobaladze, the Head of the State Department of Veterans, also addressed the audience. Bishop Shio Mujiri, the Locum Tenens of Ilia II, the Patriarch of Georgia’s Orthodox Christian Church, participated in the event and read out the Patriarch’s congratulations, the Government press office said. 

At the end of the event, artists Anna and Mariam Zhgenti, the children of Zurab Zhgenti, a veteran of Abkhazia and the 2008 war, gifted their painting to the PM.