The Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee considered, in the II reading, amendments to the Budget Code and approved them.

The draft law stipulates that any reduction in the total amount of appropriations allocated to the Legal Aid Service under the economic classification of expenditures, compared to the amount determined by the approved budget of the previous year, shall be allowed only with the consent of the Legal Aid Service.

Under the current version of the law, such a reduction is permitted with the consent of the Legal Aid Council.

The proposed amendment derives from changes previously introduced by Parliament to the Law on Legal Aid, according to which the Legal Aid Council has been abolished.

The authors and initiators of the draft law are MPs: Rati Ionatamishvili, Archil Gorduladze, Tornike Cheishvili, Davit Matikashvili, Aluda Gudushauri, Guram Macharashvili, Akaki Aladashvili, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, and Aleksandre Tabatadze.