Some Ministries are losing their function

The Ministry of Economic Development is slowly decreasing its activities; from 2010 this institution will serve no serious purpose. Therefore the prognosis made during Kakha Bendukidze’s term as Economy Minister is slowly coming true, as this Ministry is disappearing.

Analysts suggest that there is no unanimous opinion in the administration about which Ministries should be abolished and which should remain and what functions they should have. Economist Davit Narmania thinks that this issue is quite complicated. The Government should have a strategy based on whether it wants a fully liberal country or whether it wants to regulate different spheres. Ministries can be established or not on the basis of this. Narmania gives as an example of bad design the Ministry of Agriculture, which is a weak institution dealing with a sector which creates less than 20% of GDP, while 53% of the Georgian population are involved in agricultural activities.

Depriving of Ministry of Economic Development of certain functions does not mean that these functions are disappearing. They are being transferred to other Ministries, for example the new Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure. Some analysts suggest that this Ministry is actually occupied with monitoring local governments and interfering in their work, although according to Georgian legislation they should deal with their problems independently.

What the Ministry of Refugees and Resettlement is supposed to do is very obscure. Social care, allowances and assistance for IDPs are distributed by the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Protection whereas the houses built for them were constructed by various international organisations and the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore the Government needs to better design.