Forbes became interested in who earns the most among the senior government officials and managers.
In Georgia, the average salary is growing annually and according to the data of 2017 by the National Statistics Office, the average salary in the country has reached 999 GEL per month. To put this in perspective, 10 years ago the average salary in Georgia was 368 GEL per month. The highest-paying occupations are finance and insurance (2008.3 GEL); professional, science and technical work (1594.5 GEL); construction (1465.7 GEL), and information and communications (1425.7 GEL).
In 2017 the average nominal wage in the government sector did not change. Within the government sector management positions are the highest paying positions: the average wage for the “legislators, senior government officials and managers” posts reached 2177.4 GEL.
Forbes became interested in who earns the most among the senior government officials and managers. To acquire this information we used the property/assets declarations by the officials.
Davit Saganelidze – in September 2015 Mr. Saganelidze was appointed Executive Director of the state-owned Partnership Funds. In 2017 he received a salary of 336 000 GEL, meaning that Mr. Saganelidze’s salary comes to 28 000 GEL per month. From September 2015 inclusive of 31 December, he received a salary of 84,000 GEL. In 2016 assets declaration Saganelidze did not indicate his salary/remuneration. However, it is known that he received 404 250 GEL in salary during this period, which amounts to over 33 600 GEL per month- therefore, during the 2 years and four months, Mr. Saganelidze earned a total of 824 250 GEL in salary.
Davit Peradze – Mr. Peradze was appointed a General Director of Georgian Railway back in November 2017. From 22 November 2017 until and inclusive of 31 December, he received a salary of 15 696 GEL. When Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze was in the same position, he earned a salary of 18 372 GEL per month. According to his property declaration, from 1 January 2016 until 31 December the amount he received through his job equaled 220 474 GEL. According to the assets declaration of 2015, he received 225 474 GEL, and in 2014 186, 780 GEL, which comes to over 15 500 GEL per month. In 2013 as the General Director of Georgian Railway, Mr. Bakhtadze received a salary of 194 925 GEL. This means that in this post, in total, Mr. Bakhtadze received a salary of over 828 000 GEL.
Davit Tvalabeishvili – was appointed a General Director of Georgian Oil and Gas Company in November 2012. The Partnership fund and therefore the Government is a 100% shareholder of the GOGC. From this period until and inclusive of 2017, Tvalabeishvili earned 762000. In 2016, his salary came to 14 538 GEL per month. In a single year, he earned 175 000 GEL.
Sulkhan Zumburidze – In December 2007,Zumburidze was appointed a Chairman of the management board of Georgian State Electrosystem. The company is also part of the government and is owned 100% by the Partnership Fund. In 2016, Sulkhan Zumburidze received 341 700 GEL as a salary, equating to over 28 000 GEL per month. From 2013 to and inclusive of 2017, i.e. over the course of 5 years, Sulkhan Zumburidze earned over 1.4 million GEL.
Vakhtang Ambokadze – Mr. Ambokadze is the General Director at Electricity System Commercial Operator (ESCO). In this post throughout five years (from 2013 till the end of 2017) he earned over half a million GEL, more precisely 645 046 GEL. In 2016, his total salary came to 132 840 GEL, which equates to 11 000 GEL per month.
Irina Milorava – In her position as theChair of the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission, Irina earned 165 604 GEL in 2016 – which amounts to 13 800 GEL per month.
Kakha Bekauri – In his position as the Chairperson of the Georgian National Communications Commission, Bekauri earned 241 376 GEL from 1 January to 31 December 2017, amounting to 20 000 GEL per month. It is worth mentioning that in 2016 when Mr. Bekauri was in the position of a member of the Georgian National Communications Commission his annual earnings reached 233 988 GEL amounting to 19 400 GEL per month. During his overall time working in the Commission from 2014 to 2017, Mr. Bekauri earned almost a million GEL – 970 892 GEL. A member of the commission Vakhtang Abashidze also earned almost a million GEL, more precisely 933 086 GEL from 2014 till 2017.
Koba Gvenetadze – the president of the National Bank earned 243 000 GEL in 2017 (20 250 GEL per month). From this amount, Mr. Gvenetadze received 165 000 GEL as the president of NBG and 78 000 GEL as a member of the board. During his time working with the National Bank, in total Mr. Gvenitadze earned half a million GEL.It is worth noting that, during his time with the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Gvenetadze used to earn over 11 800 USD per month.
