2017-06-01
Held at the Administration of the Government, today's Government meeting was chaired by Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. The Cabinet discussed 25 issues on its meeting agenda.
The Government approved the first set of amendments to the Local self-Government Code submitted by the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure. The amendments aim at territorial optimization in 14 municipalities. Consequently, the unified municipality will keep the budgets of both municipalities. These are the Municipalities of Ozurgeti, Zugdidi, Gori, Telavi, Akhaltsikhe, Mtskheta, and Ambrolauri.
Directly elected mayor will be the highest ranking official in these and other municipalities. The elected Sakrebulo assemblies will have actual mechanisms of democratic control. The mayor will endorse candidacies for the positions of deputy mayor and heads of departments who will be appointed upon approval from Sakrebulo assemblies. The amendments seek to usher in a more effective system of governance and to enhance citizen engagement and democratic control.
The second set of amendments, which will be developed by the next sessions, involves the creation of territorial bodies in every settlement to raise the needs and requests of a given settlement before the municipal mayor. These bodies will ensure maximal possible citizen engagement in all decision-making processes. The second set will also regulate the streamlining mechanism for non-commercial legal entities in municipalities, along with principles for their establishment, so that one non-commercial legal entity may operate per area, this way ensuring against identical organizations operating in the same area.
The Cabinet also discussed amendments to the Law of Georgia on Public Safety, which aim at increased state protection in cases of unforeseen developments that may erupt in places of public gathering and threaten life, health or property of a third party, also preventing possible harm, and enhance state protection of citizens. In the civilized world, insurance is an accepted method of financial loss management as one of the best ways to compensate the victim, also being an excellent guarantee protecting the responsible party, that is, organizers of public events from financial losses. The Government of Georgia, in its decree, will list sites, the owners of which will be obligated to assume responsibility to third parties for compensating the lives, health, and property damages suffered by citizens in emergencies.
In addition, civil responsibility insurance will become mandatory in relation to foreign-registered automobiles operated in the territory of Georgia. This will promote social and economic stability in Georgian society, resolution of accident-related disputes in a civilized manner. The draft seeks to regulate civil relations arising on the basis of traffic accidents involving foreign-registered automobiles operated in the territory of Georgia and resulting in harm inflicted on a third party's life, health, or property.
Today the government also approved amendments to the April 24, 2010 Decree #126 of the Government of Georgia on Measures to Lower Poverty and Improve Social Protection in the Country. According to these amendments, after registering socially vulnerable families in the database, unemployed able-bodied family members will be obligated to register as "employment seekers" on the www.worknet.gov.ge, a labor market management web-portal, within 30 days after a visit from an authorized officer of the Social Service Agency LEPL. Failure to comply will result in the discontinuation of registration in the unified database for vulnerable families. Consequently, the unemployed able-bodied members of vulnerable families registered in the unified database will have access to information about openings and training/retraining programs, which will result in their activation in the labor market.
Prime Minister's Press Office