On air on Rustavi 2, the former President of the National Bank of Georgia, Giorgi Kadagidze, focused, among other things, upon the necessity and the possibility of a decrease in bureaucratic expenses in Georgia. "Georgia is currently being governed by 19 ministries if we do not count the legal entities of public law and other similar structures. For example, Switzerland, which is one of the most developed countries in the world, is being governed by eight ministries. Of course, the possibility to cut down on bureaucracy is quite high. I believe that it is possible to abolish all state ministries as well as the Ministry of Corrections which is present in almost no European countries."
FactChecktook interest in Giorgi Kadagidze’s statement and studied the number of ministries in different European countries.
There is a total of 16 ministries in Georgia in addition to three state ministries. The Ministry of Justice of Georgia ran the penitentiary system until 2008. The Prosecutor’s Office joined the Ministry of Justice of Georgia in 2008. Consequently, due to the conflict of interests, the penitentiary system was separated from the Ministry of Justice and established itself as an independent ministry. Despite the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office was once again separated from the Ministry of Justice in 2013, the Ministry of Corrections of Georgia was not reintegrated with the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.
Given the examples of various European countries we can definitely say that a country can indeed be governed by fewer ministries and ministers. For example, Switzerland has seven ministries, the Netherlands has 11, Austria has 13 and Germany is governed by 14 ministries (see Table 1). Among the European countries we looked at, Romaniaturned out to have the largest number of ministries.
Table 1:
Number of Ministries in Selected European Countries
| Romania | 21 |
| Bulgaria | 17 |
| France | 18 |
| Denmark | 17 |
| Portugal | 17 |
| Germany | 14 |
| Slovakia | 14 |
| Latvia | 13 |
| Austria | 13 |
| Spain | 12 |
| Netherlands | 11 |
| Switzerland | 7 |
None of the European countries we studied has a Ministry of Corrections or anything of the sort. In addition, most of the countries do not have a separate Ministry of Energy which is often integrated with the Ministry of Economy. Most of these countries also do not have Ministries of Sports. Only Romania, Denmark and Bulgaria feature a separate Ministry of Energy whilst the Ministry of Sports could only be found in Romania and Bulgaria.
Conclusion
There are a total of 16 ministries in Georgia in addition to three state ministries. As for Switzerland, it is governed by a total of seven ministries. In addition, a number of European countries have a much lower number of ministries than Georgia does. European countries do not have separate Ministries of Corrections, Sports or Energy.
FactCheck concludes that Giorgi Kadagidze’s statement is TRUE.
