Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has defended planned salary increases for public officials amid criticism over the decision to raise pensions for people under 70 by just GEL 20.
Kobakhidze said he was prepared to give up his own planned salary increases but argued that reducing ministers' current pay could increase the risk of corruption.
"Although my salary is important to me, I am ready to forgo the increases planned for the coming years," Kobakhidze said. "I say this with full responsibility: if you pay a minister less than they currently earn, you are pushing them toward corruption and telling them, 'Go on, go and make money for yourself!'"
Kobakhidze argued that eliminating the salaries of all state officials would make little difference to pension payments. Even if the money were redirected to pensioners, he said, pensions would rise by less than GEL 3.
"If we add up all these salaries and imagine that not a single state official receives any salary at all, pensions would increase by less than GEL 3," he said, adding that the combined salaries account for less than 0.1% of the state budget.
Kobakhidze said he was willing to forgo future salary increases even if this meant that some senior civil servants could earn more than the Prime Minister.
Turning to ministers' pay, he estimated that they currently earn around GEL 12,000 per month after taxes. He argued that this was modest compared with salaries for positions carrying similar responsibilities in the private sector, where he said earnings could reach GEL 50,000 to GEL 100,000.
Asked whether the previous government had encouraged corruption by paying officials inadequate salaries before salary indexation was introduced, Kobakhidze said their pay had not reflected the challenges they faced or the responsibilities they carried.
He also recalled that Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgian Dream, had personally financed salary supplements for public servants during the previous government.
"This was an anti-corruption measure," Kobakhidze said, arguing that adequate compensation for public officials should be viewed as a way to prevent corruption.
Kobakhidze dismissed comparisons between pension payments and public officials' salaries as "pure speculation."
