The Municipality of Zugdidi spends funds from its own revenues for the exercise of delegated powers. In a situation where municipal budgets, including that of Zugdidi, are scarce and insufficient for proper exercise of the self-government bodies’ own powers, the exercise of delegated powers should not be an additional financial burden on the City Hall.

According to the law, an administrative body that delegates powers is obliged to fully provide financial resources to the local self-government body that exercises these powers._^[1] In the case of the Municipality of Zugdidi, such administrative bodies are the Ministry of regional infrastructure, the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees and the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs.

The targeted transfer allocated from the State Budget of Georgia for the Municipality of Zugdidi for the exercise of the delegated powers amounts to GEL 350,000, while the municipality, on its part, adds GEL 220,000 to this sum.

The City Hall of Zugdidi exercises the following powers:

●       Public healthcare services (epidemiological supervision, control, immunological prevention, etc. of contagious diseases); 

●       Social protection program for war veterans (provision of social care);

●       Program of supporting IDPs (provision of social care);

●        Enhancement of the country’s defense capacity (registration of conscripts and their recruitment for mandatory military service).

In three of the four cases, the Municipality of Zugdidi also spends funds from its own revenues. The situation was also the same in 2018. In total, the Municipality of Zugdidi has spent up to half a million lari from its scarce budget for the exercise of the powers of the central authorities:

Therefore, we call upon the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees and the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia to ensure the allocation of relevant amounts of financial and material resources when it delegates powers to local self-government bodies, in accordance with the requirements of law.  

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_^[1] Local Self-Government Code, Article 15, Part 3;