Resume:  In the first half of 2019, the total labour remuneration expenditures for those employed in the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport amounted to GEL 4,876,505. Of that amount, GEL 4,854,310 is salary whilst GEL 22,195 is a salary supplement.

On one hand, the statement is true – in the first and second quarters of 2019, none of the employees of the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport were paid bonuses as part of their labour remuneration. On the other hand, it is the positive performance of an employee which constitutes the legal ground for paying bonuses whereas employee performance evaluations mostly happen in the second half of a calendar year. Therefore, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport lacked the legal grounds to pay bonuses as opposed to salary supplements which were paid in both quarters with 81% of the total salary supplements paid to high-ranking personnel. Of note is the 2018 practice vis-à-vis the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. In the last year, bonuses and salary supplements were paid throughout all four quarters. However, of the total bonuses, 42.9% was paid at the end of the year, in the fourth quarter, whilst 58.2% of the total salary supplement was paid in the beginning of the year, in the first quarter.

Therefore, the statement of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport that “none of the employees were paid bonuses” is a manipulation of facts because employees of the central staff of the Ministry, apart from their monthly salary, were also paid salary supplements in the aforementioned period and most of the supplements were paid to high-ranking personnel.

Analysis

As stated by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, no bonuses have been paid throughout 2019. With the aim of verifying this statement, FactCheck analysed the labour remuneration figures of the Ministry’s staff.

Labour remuneration (wage) includes a salary, a salary supplement and an award (bonus). Payment of the salary supplement and the bonus in public institutions is governed by law and defined by legislation. Salary is a monthly remuneration in the public institution determined by staff list or contract whilst bonuses and supplements are additional forms of remuneration. Since 2018, the rule for paying additional remuneration and its maximum amount has been determined by the Law of Georgia on Remuneration in Public Institutions and as per the aforementioned law, the maximum annual amount of the salary supplement should not exceed 20% of the total salary whilst the annual amount of an award (bonus) should not exceed 10% of the annual remuneration. In turn, paying a salary supplement to a public servant is allowed when he performs overtime work or additional functions whilst an award (bonus) has a different supplement objective with the legal ground for receiving a bonus being the evaluation of a public servant’s performance. Therefore, payment of a bonus to a public servant is the result of a public institution’s positive evaluation of his work performance and aims to further motivate the employee. Evaluation of public servants is carried out once a year and, therefore, bonuses are paid once a year following the evaluation. As opposed to the bonus, paying a salary supplement to a public servant is allowed within the determined margins in each period of a budget year.

In the first and second quarters of 2019, the total amount of labour remuneration for individuals employed in the positions allocated in the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport’s central staff was GEL 3,613,192. Of that amount, GEL 1,680,015 was paid in the first quarter and GEL 1,933,177 was paid in the second quarter. These figures include only the salary and the salary supplement as awards (bonuses), which should be paid on the legal ground of a public servant’s evaluation, were not paid in the first half of 2019. In turn, the evaluation of public servants is less likely to happen in the first half of the year. In particular, in the first quarter of 2019, a total of GEL 3,590,998 was paid as a salary to people employed in staff-level positions whilst GEL 22,195 was paid as a salary supplement. Of the salary supplement paid in the first half of 2019, 81% (GEL 17,985) was paid to high-level employees of the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport whilst remaining 19%; that is, GEL 4,210 was paid to lower-level employees. 

Of note is that the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport paid bonuses and supplements in all four quarters of 2018. In total, the labour remuneration for staff-level employees in the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport was GEL 8,523,097. Of that amount, 78.9%; that is, GEL 6,722,677, was salary and 16.5%; that is, GEL 1,406,065. was bonus. In the same period, 4.6% of the total labour remuneration was paid as a supplement and amounted to GEL 394,355. Of additional note is that bonuses paid in 2018 exceed the allowed threshold because they equal 20.9% of the salary.

Apart from staff-level employees in the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, there are contract employees (non-staff employees). Their labour remuneration, similar to those of public servants employed in staff-level positions, includes salary as envisioned by the contract as well as an award (bonus) and a salary supplement.

In the first and second quarters of 2019, the total amount of labour remuneration for contract employees (non-staff personnel) of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport’s central staff was GEL 1,263,312. In the aforementioned period, no bonus or salary supplement was paid to contract employees. Of note is that no salary supplement was paid to contract employees working in the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport in 2018 whilst contract employees received bonuses in all four quarters of the same year which constituted GEL 479,292 in total; that is, 25.8% of their salary. In the four quarters in 2018, GEL 1,858,047 was paid to contract employees as salary which exceeds the total salary paid in the first two quarters by GEL 594,734. Therefore, the total amount of salary paid to contract employees of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport in 2019 has significantly increased as compared to the previous year.

The total labour remuneration of the employees in the central staff of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport was GEL 4,876,505. Of that amount, labour remuneration is 99.5% whilst the salary supplement is 0.5%; that is, GEL 22,195.

In 2018, the total amount of the labour remuneration of central staff employees of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport was GEL 10,860,436. Of that amount, GEL 8,580,724 (79%) was salary, GEL 1,885,357 (17.4%) was bonus and GEL 394,355 (3.6%) was a salary supplement. Of note is that in 2018, bonuses and supplements were paid in all four quarters. However, bonuses (in terms of amount) were mostly paid in the fourth quarter whilst supplements were paid in the first quarter. This means that most of the bonuses were paid at the end of the year in 2018 and most of the supplements were paid at the beginning of the year.