On 23 July 2014, during his speech at the extra plenary session of the Parliament, the Minister of Finance of Georgia, Nodar Khaduri, stated:  “If we take away the GEL 165 million, which we spent on education, defence and agriculture, from the 2012 budget expenditure, it is clear that we spent a significantly bigger amount of money last year than in 2012, even though we couldn’t entirely gather the revenues.”

FactCheck

took interest in this statement and verified its accuracy.

According to the State Budget of Georgia of 2012, the revenue part of the budget was equal to GEL 8,158 million while the cash execution amounted to GEL 8,004 million which constitutes 99.4% of the budget plan. In the 2013 budget plan the revenues part was equal to GEL 8,425 million and the cash execution amounted to GEL 7,717.4. The budget plan was implemented by 91.6% which is why the 2013 budget had a GEL 700 million shortage in revenues. Despite the fact that the planned revenues of the 2013 budget were GEL 267.8 million more than those of 2012, the actual revenues were GEL 286.6 more in 2012 than in 2013.

As for the budget expenditure, the budget plan in 2012 was equal to GEL 8,091.5 million while the actual spending amounted to GEL 7,806.8 million, constituting a 96.5% of the plan. In total, GEL 6,566.3 million was allocated to cover the running costs which constituted 97.3% of the plan. Up to GEL 728.6 million was spent on non-financial assets; namely, infrastructural projects. The growth of financial assets amounted to GEL 372.6 million (without residues) and GEL 154.4 million was allocated for paying the principal amounts of debt, GEL 139.9 million of which was actually spent.

The expenditure part of the 2013 budget plan was equal to GEL 8,748.5 million and amounted to GEL 8,140.2 million in the reporting period constituting 92.6% of the plan. The running costs in 2013 were equal to GEL 6,545.6 million and GEL 767.7 million was allocated for infrastructural projects. The growth of financial assets amounted to GEL 277.1 million and GEL 513.9 million was paid in debts.

Revenues			Expenditure
	Approved Plan	Cash Execution	Approved Plan	Cash Execution
2012	8,158.0	8,004.0	8,091.5	7,806.8
2013	8,425.0	7,717.4	8,748.5	8,104.2

As the data above make clear, the planned expenditures of the 2013 budget were GEL 657 million and the cash execution GEL 297.4 million more than those of 2012. As for the running costs, they were GEL 20.7 million more in 2012 than in 2013.

In order to check the amounts of the budget growth of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia, FactCheck

looked into the December amendments of the 2012 annual budget. The amendment allocated an additional GEL 26.5 million for education, GEL 54.1 million for defence and GEL 79.7 million for agriculture. The total amount of additional funding was equal to GEL 160.4 million, confirming Mr Khaduri’s statement.

Conclusion

According to the state budget reports of 2012 and 2013, the revenues were GEL 286.6 million more in 2012 than in 2013 even though the planned revenues were much higher in 2013.

As for the expenditure part of the 2013 budget, it was GEL 297.4 million more than that of 2012. If we take away the GEL 160 million allocated for the additional funding of the defence, education and agriculture fields from the expenditure part of the 2012 budget by the December amendment of the 2012 annual budget, we will see that GEL 457.4 million more was spent in 2013 than in 2012.

However, it should be pointed out that the expenditure plan of the budget was implemented by 96.5% in 2012 and by 92.6% in 2013 which means that a bigger part of the expenditure plan was implemented in 2012 than in 2013.

FactCheck concludes that Nodar Khaduri’s statement:  “If we take away the GEL 165 million, which we spent on education, defence and agriculture, from the 2012 budget expenditure, it is clear that we spent a significantly bigger amount of money last year than in 2012, even though we couldn’t entirely gather the revenues,” is MOSTLY TRUE.