New Mayor says bonuses are needed “for encouragement”

The new Mayor of Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze, says that bonuses are needed “to encourage” employees, but “everything has its limits.”

“It is important for employees to be encouraged in their work,” Kaladze said.

“I welcome the bonus system. An employer should have an opportunity to encourage the people in their office if they work better than others,” Kaladze said.

The new mayor stated this in response to a draft bill being discussed in Parliament.

The bill regulates payments for public servants and sets salary supplements and money awards for exceptional civil servants.

No one says that a bonus system is bad and it must be scrapped.

However, it has always been a problem in Georgia that public servants, especially those taking high posts, took bonuses and salary supplements more than their monthly salaries.

There are cases when heads or deputies of some departments take more money through their salaries and supplements, equal to Prime Minister’s salary.

Unfortunately, a large number of public employees still believe that they came to power to benefit themselves.

Consequently, Georgia is in need of a law that will clearly regulate the issue and ensure the fair distribution of bonuses.

If a bonus is awarded, people should know why a particular employee was given additional budgetary money.