A recent compliance audit by the State Audit Office examined the Georgian Parliament’s travel expenses and found significant shortcomings in both delegation allowances and airline ticket procurement for 2019–2021.
The audit emphasized cases where daily allowances were paid in full to officials whose meals were already provided by the host party. Auditors stated that delegation requests and reports from the International Relations Department did not always reflect accurate information, resulting in unnecessary expenditures.
Airline ticket purchases were also problematic. Despite regulations requiring travel requests to be submitted at least 14 days before departure, most requests were filed only 3–4 days in advance. This practice limited the use of discounted fare categories and increased overall travel costs.
To analyze ticket pricing discrepancies, auditors reviewed 228 travel orders covering 1,874 tickets for 712 delegates. The audit found that in 60% of cases, tickets were purchased in Turkish Airlines’ economy Y-class which does not include discounts and inflates costs even more.
The State Audit Office recommends that Parliament implement stricter controls to ensure travel requests contain complete and accurate information and that ticket purchases are made well in advance. These measures would reduce unnecessary spending and improve the efficiency of budget use.
