Tbilisi, Georgia, July 24
By Nana Kirtzkhalia - Trend:
Georgian Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri has recently said that he personally witnessed how the previous government spent 8 billion lari ($1=1.76 lari) on defense, and how disastrous was the situation on bases in Marneuli and Vaziani.
Khaduri made the remarks answering the questions of the opposition while presenting them with a report on implementation of the state budget for 2013.
The minister noted that the funding for the following, 2015 year will be increased.
The minister noted that previous leadership of the Ministry of Defense carelessly spent the state-allocated money on some useless tenders.
"When we arrived in December, we saw that the army had a problem with food, thus we allocated additional 60 million lari so the army would not starve. Your government spent 8 million lari on defense and the infrastructure of the Defense Ministry is in awful state," Khaduri said.
He noted that he visited Marneuli and Vaziani bases, and a lot of additional money is needed for the soldiers and officers to have normal conditions for study, life and of military training.
However, the MP from the opposition National Movement Nugzar Tsiklauri reminded the minister that as a result of the provided food, thousands of soldiers got poisoned.
"Regarding provision, you don't have anything to brag about. You fed the soldiers with bad products," Tsiklauri said.
Edited by S.I.