Prior to the agenda items, the newly elected Speaker of the Parliament, H.E. Kakha Kutchava addressed the lawmakers - "I would like to thank you very much for the vote of confidence. We are entering a new phase of parliamentary life and it is necessary to increase public confidence in legislative activities. I wish to see a hall full of excitement, interesting debates, healthy criticism, opposition and, most importantly, tangible results that will give our people even more hope and faith that we will shine even more, become a full-fledged member of the EU and NATO, and be exemplary not only in the region".

The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia Alexander Darakhvelidze introduced the Bill on Public Safety Management Center “112” with I reading, envisaging the introduction of an effective fee payment mechanism, which will help increase the efficiency of the service provided by the Public Safety Management Center "112".

According to the rapporteur, if the owner or legal owner of a motor vehicle does not pay the relevant fee within the established period, then the authorized person of the Public Safety Management Center will issue an individual legal act, giving the person a certain term - at least 30 days to pay the financial liability.

According to him, the decision may be subject to an appeal if desired.

The rapporteur also noted that the draft law provides for the sending of notifications by "112" and the mechanisms for sending notifications are taken from the Civil Procedure Code.

Dimitri Khundadze, Chairman of the Healthcare and Social Issues Committee, introduced the Bill on Social Assistance.

The draft law deals with the issues of legalization of overpayments for various reasons and release of beneficiaries from the obligation to return these funds to the state.

According to the submitted legislative initiative, over-issued subsistence allowance and social package, over-paid pension as well as over-issued state compensation (issued no later than July 20, 2020) are considered legit and are not subject to refund.

In addition, such amounts already paid back in any form to the state budget of Georgia are not subject to refund. Relevant persons will also be exempted from the financial obligations arising from the over-accrual and issuance of compensation from the state, which, according to the initiator, will be another expression of the support of the recipients of compensation in the light of the economic problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the rapporteur, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Khatuna Totladze, the Bill on State Compensation and State Academic Stipends was conditioned by the need to correct the gap in the current law.

As she elucidated, in accordance with Article 15 of the Law: "A person with the highest diplomatic rank shall be awarded compensation upon attaining the age of 65, the amount of which shall be one third of the average remuneration defined based on the last one year for the position held by them by the time of the termination of their powers”.

According to her, the shortcoming of the current wording of the article is demonstrated by the fact that the compensation is calculated according to the salary of the last one year of the last position, which is sometimes linked to the very low salaries of 15-20 years ago and puts in an unequal position those who, for example, completed a diplomatic career 15-20 years ago and those who retired 5-10 years ago.

As the rapporteur elucidated, the current wording of Article 15 is inconsistent with one of the main objectives of the law - to encourage the circle of persons who have performed special service before the state. In fact, the amount of state compensation calculated in accordance with this edition is so small that in many cases it does not exceed the amount of state pension established by the Law on the State Budget of Georgia for 2021.

At today's plenary session, the MPs deliberated with II reading the Bill on Public Health.

MPs discussed with III reading the Bills on:

• Criminal Code;
• General Education;
• Deposits Insurance System.