PM Designate Says the Number of Ministries will Decrease
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, June 19
The Georgian Dream ruling party candidate for Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze says that the number of ministries will decrease from 14 to 11, which will make government activity more effective and save about 100-120 million GEL budget funds.
Last year the number of ministries was decreased from 18 to 14, which stirred controversies.
Bakhtadze did not name his renewed Cabinet of Ministers yesterday as the decrease in the number of ministries requires legal changes.
He said that to avoid complications, parliament will vote on the existing Cabinet of 14 Ministers formally within the next two days and if the Cabinet gains the parliament’s support, they will initiate an amendment to decrease the number of ministries to 11.
Only once the amendment is approved, Bakhtadze said he will name the renewed Cabinet of Ministers, which will “definitely involve new faces.”
Bakhtadze did not name the new ministers, but the Head of Parliament’s Procedural Committee Giorgi Kakhiani stated that foreign, finance and economy ministers will quit their posts. He said that he will name the renewed Cabinet in about 2-3 weeks.
Bakhtadze was nominated for the post of prime minister by the Georgian Dream ruling party after the resignation of Giorgi Kvirikashvili on June 13, due to the disagreements with the Georgian Dream party head, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Kvirikashvili stated that the main reason of the disagreement was the country’s economic policy.
Between 2005 and 2006 Bakhtadze,36, served as the project manager of the Georgian Railway.
In 2010-2012 he was the director general of Georgia’s International Energy Corporation.
In 2013- 2017, before taking the finance minister’s post, he served as the director general of Georgian Railway.
Bakhtadze holds a doctoral degree in technical sciences and a master’s degree in business administration from the INSEAD Business School in France.
The opposition says Bakhtadze will do what the “country’s real ruler” Ivanishvili says.
