"This year at the end of the first quarter, the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure had fulfilled 107% of the budget. This is a record number."
During his press conference in April 2015, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, stated that the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure registered a record number in fulfilling the budget of the first quarter of 2015. "I want to particularly emphasise the effectiveness of Shavliashvili’s Ministry. The Ministry’s budget fulfilment rate is 107% and this is a record number," the Prime Minister declared.
FactChecktook interest in the accuracy of the Prime Minister’s statement and verified the budget fulfilment rates of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure.
The planned budget of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure for the first quarter of 2015 was GEL 144.013 million whilst the budget fulfilment rate was GEL 154.462 million. Therefore, the budget fulfilment rate of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure for the first quarter of 2015 is 107%. In order to find out whether or not this is truly a record number, FactCheckanalysed the analogous data of the previous years (2009-2014).
Graph 1:
Budget Fulfilment Rate of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure for the First Quarters (%)
As illustrated by the graph, the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure used the largest amount of money in the first quarter of 2015 as compared to analogous periods of the previous years. However, this number exceeds the analogous data from 2011 only by 0.1%.
It must be noted that the lowest rate of budget fulfilment in the first quarters (48.5%) was registered in 2014.
For further information, FactCheckanalysed the annual budget fulfilment rates of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure in the period of 2009-2014.
Graph 2:
Annual Budget Fulfilment Rate (%) of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure
Conclusion
The budget fulfilment rate of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure exceeded the planned amount and was registered to be 107.2%. A similar rate of budget fulfilment was not registered in the analogous periods of the previous years (2009-2014). However, it needs to be mentioned that in the first quarter of 2011, the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure had fulfilled 107.1% of the budget which is just 0.1% less than the number registered this year.
FactCheck concludes that Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement is TRUE.
