Georgian Parliament Office releases statement

Georgian Parliamentary Office released a statement in response to the TV story broadcast by TV Pirveli on March 8.

Here is the statement in full:

On March 8, 2024, TV Pirveli aired a story, according to which the Parliament of Georgia spent 2.8 million GEL on food services and was declared the most spending agency in this regard.

We inform the public that the mentioned information is complete misinformation and manipulation.

The number in the story is taken from the parliamentary budget line “Representational expenses” and is interpreted as if this budget line only applies to food services, which is not true.

Two directions are financed from this article of the budget of the Parliament:

1. The activities of majority bureaus and 2. Other representative expenses related to events held in the parliament and protocol meetings with delegations and representatives of foreign countries.

The story does not provide detailed information regarding the purpose of the expenditure incurred from this article of the budget (representative expenses) , which is why there is an attempt to mislead the public.

The reality looks like this: from the article of the budget of the Parliament “Representational expenses”, in the period given in the story, the expenses amounted to 2,814,570 GEL, of which – the expenses of the majority bureaus amounted to 2,495,100 GEL (87% of the total expenses) – other representative expenses (events held in the Parliament Palace and protocol meetings with delegations of foreign countries ), the number of which was 154 in the mentioned period, amounted to 319,470 GEL (13% of the total cost).

The Parliament of Georgia is one of the most transparent agencies. Therefore, it is unfortunate that instead of properly researching the data and informing the viewers correctly, the said story misinformed the viewers.

We encourage media representatives to publish only verified information in the future.