(Tbilisi, August 21, 2003, Civil Georgia) – Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security, Irakli Batiashvili, said today during a discussion about budgetary amendments that cutting expenditures would have an extremely negative impact on the country’s security and defense bodies.
As a result of cutting expenditures the Defense Ministry will lose 9.8 million Lari (USD 4.6 million), the Border Guard Department will lose 2.3 million Lari (approximately USD 1 million) and the Int!
erior Ministry will lose 7 million Lari (USD 3.2 million).
“As a result, the Defense Ministry will not be able to implement a number of activities within the NATO Partnership for Peace program. The Georgian Coast Guard will not be able to control the Abkhaz portion of Georgia’s territorial waters. This is only a short list of strategic activities, which our defense structures will fail to implement if the expenditures are cut,” said Irakli Batiashvili.
Every parliamentary committee chairman and parliamentary faction leader has expressed their point of view regarding the budgetary amendments, which are aimed at closing the fiscal gap. The approval of these amendments is one of the main recommendations that has been made by the IMF.
The opposition will demand that the government be held accountable for failure to meet the budgetary targets.
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