Business plan

Legal Entity of Public Law

Environmental Information and Education Centre
Ministry of Environment and
Natural Resources Protection
Georgia
June 2013

Contentplan
Business

Introduction
Part I - Organisation
1.

Mission

2.

Vision

3.

Overall target groups

4.

Organisational structure

Part II - Strategy
5.

Policy Cycle: introduction

6.

Policy Cycle: an instrument of cooperation

7.

Growing towards a robust organisation

8.

Partnerships

Part III Operation

9.

Activities

10.

Management

11.

Qualification of staff

12.

Investments

13.

Finance
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Introduction

Background:
This business plan for the Environmental Information and Education Center (EIEC) was
developed under the G2G project EIA-inspections between Georgia and the Netherlands.
Capacity building
It was deemed crucial to ensure that the knowledge built up in this and future projects, and
the results achieved would be of a sustainable nature. Therefore it was decided to also
include capacity building. Supporting the development of this Center was a logical step and
resulted in the support of writing a business plan as part of the project.
The plan was written by the acting management team of the Center, together with 2 experts
from the Dutch environmental Knowledge Centre InfoMil, thus combining knowledge on
the Georgian situation with experiences and best practices from the Netherlands.

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Introduction

Vital role for EIEC in sustainable development

The Centre plays a vital role in the development of sustainable thinking and acting in
Georgia as it will:
Reach a large target audience (ranging from general audience to ministry staff,
businesses and NGOs);
Dispose of the necessary knowledge and skills to provide essential information, training
on skills and knowledge and raise awareness to really make a difference in the
development of sustainable development in Georgia;
Act as an intermediary between Ministry and target audience, thus closing the cycle
between policy making and execution.

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Part I plan
Business

Organisation

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Part I
Organisation

Mission

We strive to.
Be the center that provides:

Development of competences & knowledge and raising awareness;

Access to knowledge and information concerning the environment;

Access to justice and public participation in decision making.

to professionals, general public, staff of ministries, and other relevant target groups
in cooperation with Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection and other
partners

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Part I
Organisation

Vision

We will do this through .

Providing adequate knowledge and competences regarding environment to civil

servants and professionals (a.o. training, workshops);

Providing relevant information regarding environment (a.o. database, website);

Facilitating environmental education (primary, secondary schools and higher

education);

Raising awareness for the environment of the general Georgian public;

Facilitating public participation;

Facilitating access to justice.

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Part I
Organisation

Overall target group

The overall target groups of the Centre are:

(in order of importance)
The staff of the MoE (as trainees);
The MoE (as policy maker);
Primary and secondary schools;
The staff of national authorities and state agencies (as trainees);
Businesses;
NGOs;
Other interested parties;
General public.

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Part I
Organisation

Organisational structure

EIEC consists of 3 departments, headed by a director.

!

Director!
Nino!Gvazava!

Environmental!
Education!
department!
Head!of!
department:!Nato!
Sultanishvili!

Environmental
Information and
Public participation
Department
Head of
department: Levan
Tavartkiladze
!

Staff!3!persons!
!

Administrative!
department!
Head!of!
department:!
Sopho!
Tchitchinadze!
!

Staff!2!persons!
!

Staff!8!persons!
!

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Part I
Organisation

Organisational structure

Environmental Information and Public Participation Department

This department is responsible for collecting and disseminating environmental information
and the participation of public in decision making.
Its primary goals are:
To improve the knowledge, skills and competences regarding environment to civil servants
and professionals by providing information and training materials;
To raise awareness and improve knowledge regarding the environment to general public
and interested parties by running databases and a website;
To ensure the general public has access to justice through providing guidance materials;
To ensure the general public can participate in the decision making process of the
government.
The target group of this department is:
The staff of the MoE;
Staff of other ministries and governmental organisations;
Businesses, NGOs, interested parties and General public.
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Part I
Organisation

Organisational structure

Environmental Education Department

This department is responsible for environmental education and training.
Its primary goals are:
To improve the knowledge, skills and competences regarding environment to civil servants
and professionals by providing training programmes and organise trainings and workshops;
To improve the knowledge on environmental issues of children in primary, secondary
schools and higher education;
To raise awareness for the environment of the general Georgian public.
The target group of this department is:
The staff of the ministry of Environment and Nature Protection;
Staff of other ministries and governmental organisations;
Children of primary and secondary schools;
Businesses in tourism;
General public.
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Part I
Organisation

Organisational structure

Administration Department
This department is responsible for the support and facilitation of the main tasks of the Centre.
Its primary goals are:
To support EIEC efficiently in financial and accounting, administrative, secretarial, logistic,
legal, IT, personnel administration, planning of facilities and purchase matters; as well as
solving urgent problems of non-routine matters;
To assist other departments in their activities, such as organizing trainings, meetings etc;
To perform specific activities concerning general facilities (like computer lab, testing etc);
To provide overviews and analysis of support activities (such as finances) when relevant.

The target group of this department is:

The director and the heads of department;
Employees of the Centre;
Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection, ministry of Finance and the State treasury.
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Part I
Organisation

Organisational structure

Interrelationship between the departments

The department of Environmental Information and public participation will:
provide the expertise, knowledge and if necessary staff for the training sessions and
workshops that will be organised by the department of Environmental Education.
The department of Environmental Education will:
provide relevant information to the department of information and Public Participation
to be published on the website.
The department of Administration will:
provide legal information to the department of Environmental Information and Public
Participation to published on the website;
arrange the public hearing meetings for the department of Environmental Information
and Public Participation;
arrange all logistics concerning the organization of trainings, seminars, conferences and
workshops.
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Part II plan
Business

Strategy

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Part II
Strategy

Policy Cycle: introduction

The main tasks of the Ministry can be structured using the policy cycle.
The Policy Cycle comprises the following steps:
1. Defining policy: here the ministry defines and adopts new policy and legislation
2. Policy execution: f.i. transfer of knowledge, explanation of new legislation and
awareness raising;
3. Policy evaluation: f.i. monitoring like
PRTR.
4. Policy feedback: f.i. getting signals
on bottlenecks in current policy
from the field
5. Agenda setting: f.i. identification of
new measures, like getting involved
in NEAP process
6. Policy preparation: f.i. participating
in the work group of the legal department of the Ministry
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Part II
Strategy

Policy Cycle:
an instrument for cooperation

Policy cycle as an instrument to support cooperation

The policy cycle not only is an instrument valuable to a Ministry in structuring its policy tasks.
It also can provide a structure for cooperation, understanding and managing the
relationship with their agencies and other partners.
Centre as a linking pin between policy making and policy use/the field
It is important that policy making stays closely connected to its target groups, so as to
understand the needs and developments and get feedback on the policies in order define
effective new policy.
The Centre can be the linking pin in connecting policy making and the field. The policy
cycle is a valuable means to define the roles and relationships between Centre and Ministry
and manage this connection effectively.

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Part II
Strategy

Policy Cycle:
an instrument for cooperation

The involvement of the Centre and Ministry within the Cycle is therefore very important
The involvement is valuable in 2 ways:
1. To be able to support the execution of policy efficiently and effectively you need to
know why policy has defined. An advisor or trainer from the Centre should be able to
understand and explain the reasons and background behind the policy or legislation;
2. MoEP can benefit from the knowledge (feedback) the Centre collects when being in
direct contact with the executioners in the field. This knowledge can also be valuable
when the Centre is involved in policy evaluation or agenda setting.
The roles the Centre plays within the different steps of the Cycle can differ in type (e.g.
facilitator, coordinator, communicator, secretariat), intensity and time. For example, within
the step policy execution the Centre can play the role of communicator and facilitator, to
raise awareness and to transfer knowledge on new and existing policy.
The development of this cooperation can be build up and intensified over time. The figure
on the next page shows the roles and tasks of the Centre positioned in the policy cycle on
short, medium and long term.
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Part II
Strategy

Policy Cycle:
An instrument for cooperation

Potential roles and tasks of EIEC

within the policy cycle
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Part IIII
Part
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Size of the Centre: critical mass

The size of the Centre currently is 16 employees, to be expanded to a maximum of 21 with
hired experts. As 8 employees are involved in administrative/support functions that do not
directly contribute to the products and/or offerings of the Centre, and 4 (also) have
management responsibilities (50% of the time), the number of FTEs (full time equivalents)
actually working directly on the Centres products and/or offerings will be around 6.
Given the high ambitions of the Centre, its broad scope (in areas to cover as well as in types
of activities) it is our opinion that:
- The current size of the Centre is an absolute minimum to be able to offer the required
capacity/products and quality of work;
- and ideally the size would be increased over time.

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Part II
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Type of work basic activities versus projects

A considerable part of the work of the Centre will consist of so called basic activities;
Examples are the website, databases, basic training modules etc. They are of a continuous
nature, and it is imperative given the mission / vision of the Centre and the Aarhus
Convention that these activities and the products they result in will be offered on a steady
basis.
Another part of the work will consist of projects. Examples are the development of guidelines,
a specific training, an awareness campaign around a specific subject etc. These are of a
project nature, meaning with a clear end-product and deadline for the activity.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Funding of the Centre

The Centre currently is state-funded. It is foreseen that the amount of state funding will
decrease with 50.000 GEL over the coming 8 years to zero. State-funding cannot be saved,
funds that have not been used need to be returned at the end of the year. No budget is
coming straight from the ministry to the Centre, as it is forbidden for ministries to pay to their
own legal entities.
This means that the Centre has to actively seek new financiers or donors and projects to be
able to:
1) carry on the current work in the coming years;
2) and possibly to expand.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Alternative means of funding

There are several options to obtain additional finance or funding for assignments.
However, in practice there are some restrictions to the type of activities that can be funded:
- Information or activities that fall under the Aarhus convention cannot be used for
charging a fee. Legally, they need to be provided free of charge;
- Ongoing, basic activities (like maintaining the website) are very unlikely to be attractive
for donors; they typically will fund new activities (rather than ongoing) on a project basis
(with a clear result and end date).
This indicates that its unlikely the Centre will able to find funding for a significant part of the
basic, information services. It may however prove a feasible strategy for the project based
activities which have a character that are in line with the goals of the donors.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Another approach would be to find other activities that can be performed for third parties,
which will cover its own cost and use the profits towards funding the basic activities.
It is however unlikely that the Centre will have enough capacity and make enough profit to
be able to fund its basic activities entirely, without any state support.
It would also be quite a risk to the Centre, as projects typically will not be evenly spread out
in time. This means that it might not be able to retain personnel with crucial expertise/skills,
when there is not enough income to pay for them during a certain period.
Conclusion
It is therefore argued that the best way to ensure a robust, continuous service of high quality
is by:
1. Ensuring coverage of cost for the basic activities;
2. Be self sustainable for the project activities.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Where to find (additional) funding, financing?

We identified the following four types of possible funding:
I. Donors
Potential donors include : USAID, EU, SIDA (Sweden), GIZ (Germany), Embassies
Although donors could be approached to fund basic activities, projects and funding the
Centre directly, not all of these approaches are likely to be successful:
Donors usually have their own mission, so it may be hard to find donors whose mission fits
the specific activities of the Centre;
As argued before: finding funding for the basic activities is unlikely;
Finding funding that will go directly to the Centre would be very attractive as it provides a
stable basis, but will not be easy. Establishing a board in which donors could take a seat
would make this option more attractive;
Often/sometimes co-financing is needed for certain kinds of funding.
Conclusion: the most feasible scenario is to look for donors for new projects (either initiated
by the Ministry or the Centre).
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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

II. Provide commercial activities for third parties

- This is a good strategy to be self sustaining in the activities performed for third parties, but
will only contribute partly towards covering other costs of the Centre. A large part of the
income (fee for provided services) will be used to cover these costs for that activities (this
includes personnel and other costs by the Centre), Only a small amount (the profit) can
go towards funding ministerial activities not funded by state funding;
- In some instances it may be difficult to find projects that fit the mission/vision of the Centre;
there should be a good balance between the need for earning money and the mission of
the Centre.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Possible activities to be performed for third parties:

Training: paid for training by businesses, other legal entities, and other ministries
The Department of Education could establish a training Centre or Academy providing
training for professionals of third parties. Such an academy could potentially be fully self
sustaining.
Develop guidelines:
For industry (paid for by f.i. Ministry of Trade, branch organisation or copies paid for
by individual companies);
Other legal entities;
Other ministries.
Support / services in projects:
Assisting projects by running the secretariat;
Facilitating training sessions in capacity building projects .
Consulting on environmental issues:
Paid for Help desk for regional authorities and businesses;
Advise for business.
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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

III. Cooperation / partnerships

In order to expand capacity and knowledge/expertise, as well as being able to fund its
activities, the Centre will actively search for relevant cooperation and partnerships. Although
often this will not lead to earning a fee it could help to reduce costs. Examples include,
exchanging services, equipment, expertise or using each others facilities.
Cooperation and partnerships can be sought through identifying complementary
knowledge and expertise; identical, overlapping or complementary goals; complementary
activities or products; identical target groups.
Potential partners include:
other ministries (f.i. ministry of education, ministry of finance, .);
other agencies / centres such as EIEC (f.i. teacher trainer centre);
NGOs, foundations;

Networks;

Industry organizations / branch organizations.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

IV. Special arrangements with the Ministry

Although the Ministry cannot pay the Centre directly for its activities, it may be possible to
think of special arrangements that allow the cost for the Centre to be reduced, e.g.
- Use of trainers from the core group that fall the Ministry in EIEC-assignments and/or to
execute training of Ministry staff;
- Secondments from the Ministry to the Centre; The Ministry pays the salary of a civil servant
that is seconded to the Centre;
- Use of Ministerial materials and or locations;
- Ministry hires a third party to do a certain task, while the Centre is coordinating this task.
Any relevant results or products can be used by the Centre for publication through the
website.

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Part
Part IIII
Stategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Conclusions and recommendations

The Centre has several basic activities that they cannot (legally) charge for and that are
unlikely to be funded by donors or third parties. It also is unlikely that the profit that will be
earned by project based activities will cover the basic activities the Centre has to run.
In order to be able to provide a continuous, stable package of basic service, it is
recommended that the Ministry commits itself to try to ensure a certain (preferably stable)
level of state funding.
The Centre will develop self sustaining activities by providing services to third parties in the
areas of training, development of guidelines etc.
The Centre will identify and initiate project proposals that are in line with the Centres mission
and donors criteria for funding.

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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

Activities supporting or needed for acquisition of extra funding and for cooperation
- Build network in relevant areas; for instance with embassies, donor-organisations, other
Ministries, NGOs etc;
- Be aware of developments that may lead to commercial opportunities and/or fundable
activities:
1. Be aware of and preferably involved in the development of new policies and
legislation;
2. Learn about new projects to be started that may need support and/or expertise.
- Build a strong profile on your abilities/skills/expertise and experience and find means to
communicate this; Specifically, present the Centre in a professional way (also in English)
on the website
- Build a business proposition:
1. Develop key indicators on how much the different types of activities cost, f.i.
through keeping records on time and cost spent;
2. Establish fees that can be charged for different type of activities, f.i. explore fees
charged by other organisation.
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Part
Part IIII
Strategy

Growing towards a robust

organisation

- Build a curriculum of commercial training modules and materials to communicate

about these
- MoE should start a strong lobby towards:
1. Acquiring a stable amount of state funding for basic activities, the exact amount
will be calculated based on the experiences in the coming years;
2.

Donors and third parties.

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Part III plan

Business

Operation

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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Activities Department of
Environmental Information and PP
Medium term

Long term

Provide access to Environmental Information

Develop and maintain website with
environmental information for civil servants

Continue maintaining website expand with

NGO

Continue maintaining website expand with

General public

Continue

Continue

Update and maintain database of

environmental projects

Continue

Continue

Giving advise by phone on incidental basis

Explore the possibilities for setting up a help

desk

and general information to comply with

Aarhus
Updating and maintaining Integrated
Environmental System
Meta information / data base
Date base organisations
Hardcopy information

Setting up the library for hard copy

documentation
Explore possibilities how to facilitate EPRTS
(together with MoE)
Database with licenses for extraction and
use of natural resources:
Database with applications and issued
environmental impact permits
Guidelines for investors for licences for
extraction and use of national resources

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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Activities Department of
Environmental Information and PP
Medium term

Long term

Facilitate public participation in decision making

Preparation of analytical reports

continue

continue

Provide general existing information about

court system and cases (jurisprudence)

continue

continue

(including updating information on court

cases)

(including updating information on court

cases)

Renew agreements with high school of

justice and prepare curriculum
Prepare guidelines on environmental
information and public participation issues;
provide relevant consultations (= covered
by Arhus?)
For investors and for public that have rights
for public hearings

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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Activities Department of
Environmental Information and PP
Medium term

Long term

Facilitate public hearings / discussions

continue

continue

Disseminate environmental Information (e.g.

documents related to public
participation/IEA permits and policy

continue
Keeping track of statistics

continue
Keeping track of statistics

Facilitate public access to justice

decisions by MoE) through:

- website
- Meetings
Prepare guidelines on environmental
information and public participation issues;
provide relevant consultations (= covered
by Arhus?) For investors and for public that
have rights for public hearings

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Activities of Department

Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Environmental Education
Medium term

Long term

Professional training: provide adequate knowledge and capacities

Training of ministry staff on environmental
expertise and sustainable development
basic training to support facilitation of new
tasks
-

develop training

provide training

continue

continue

retrain if needed

retrain if needed

Training of professionals (business, other

state agencies)
Facilitate internship program (selection and
training of interns)

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Activities of Department

Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Environmental Education
Medium term

Long term

Facilitate environmental education in educational system

Introduce ecoschools (FEE programme) for
10-14 year old students
Introduce P3 scan to schools through
teacher training center
Introduce stimulating activities in schools, for
instance competitions and certificates after
attending programs or activities
Support introduction of environmental issues
in curricula of formal higher education and
certificate programs
Develop methodological framework,
implement eco-projects
Give advice on facilities for environmental
education (e.g. Ecolab)
National day of environmental education

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Activities of Department

Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Environmental Education
Medium term

Long term

Raising awareness and stimulate changed behaviour for public and businesses and ministries
Raise awareness for Businesses by Introduce
green key and blue flag
(FEE program)
Provide guidance for consumers on
thematic issues

Provide information for consumers on

through with energy saving products and
activities

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Activities of Department

Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Environmental Education
Medium term

Long term

Internal issues / strategy / development of department

Participation in international relations (FEE
program)

continue

continue

Define education strategy (strategy and

action plan of environmental Education
2013-2016)

refine strategy

refine strategy

Define an agreement for cooperation with

teachter trainer center (use of locations and
infrastructure as well as certification issues)

continue

continue

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Activities of

Part
Part III
II
Operation

Short term

Department of Administration
Medium term

Long term

Continue and refine processes

Continue and refine processes

Plan equipment for new building

Continue

Continue

Establish internal reporting procedures and

management meetings

Continue

Continue

Support the development of business

indicators

Continue

Continue

Internal issues
basic elements of internal support processes
in place:
Accounting
Purchasing

Finance
Secretariat
Logistics

Personnel administration

In annex 1 overviews can be found of the total capacity need to execute the short term
activities.
It can be concluded that given the current capacity available and using external experts for
training activities the workload planned for 2014 can be achieved.
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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Management

The management of the Centre comprises several components, most importantly:

- Day-to day operations;
- Monitoring of depletion of budgets, hours etc;
- Evaluation of ongoing work as well as completed projects (with donor, third party if
relevant);
- Strategic planning and decision making;
- Acquisition of new projects / funding;
- Networking & managing partnerships and cooperation;
- Relate with MoE; managing the MoE-assignments, consider issues like policy &
management cycle;
- HR-issues.

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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Management

Management team
The heads of department are responsible for the day-to-day management of their
department.
Together with the director they form the management team. They will make sure to:
- have a clear understanding of their individual roles, tasks, powers and responsibilities
and how they relate to the other management team-members;
- have a clear understanding how their departments are related/connected to the other
departments, and discuss how the cooperation should be organised;
- convene regularly to discuss a/o ongoing business, performance indicators like
depletion of budgets, new acquisitions, developments in MoE and with stakeholders
etc.

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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Management

HR management
As people (employees) are the key assets and success factor of the Centre, it is essential that
ample attention is given to their well being, performance and professional development. The
heads of department will therefore:
make profiles detailing each function and the required competences, knowledge and
skills (see qualifications of staff);
have regular bilateral meetings with their employees to evaluate and discuss both
progress in projects as well as general performance and wishes;
install a formal HR-cycle, in which:
o a year planning is made and discussed with each employee (Dec/Jan);
o a formal evaluation discussion is set up with each employee (June/July) to discuss
performance and give feedback (both ways);
o a formal evaluation in which the manager rates the performance of the employee
(Nov/Dec).

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Part
Part III
II
Operation

Management

The (proposed) yearly management cycle

In order to be able to get a grip on the work package a yearly management cycle will be
established. This involves planning the work and strategic issues for the following year and
throughout the year make sure the progress is closely monitored, planned work is reviewed
and if necessary revised and reported to the appropriate partners (such as MoE, donors and
third parties).

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Part
Part III
II
Operation
Q3-4

Management

Discuss and agree on the conditions and the work to be done for MoE for following year
Discuss height of state budget that MoE will put before and defend with Ministry of Finance.
Get assignment with clear goals/results and budgets, and a contact person per task; decide
on critical achievement indicators
Write year plan: name activities and projects and assign capacity; also include strategic tasks
and time for acquisition and networking.

Q1

write annual report on past year, include activities/results/successes;

Write a popular version on the report with inspiring examples that can be broadly distributed
(and used for PR purposes), and one for MoE/donors/third parties of a specific nature

Q1/Q2: monitor progress and depletion of hours and budgets

report to assigners, if necessary discuss measures to be taken; report signals / policy input to
MoE
Q3

start discussing assignment for the next year with MoE

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Part III
Operation

Qualification of staff

The staff of the Center can be roughly divided into 4 categories. For each of these general
qualifications can be established. These will later be elaborated and/or specified for specific
functions (see annex for introduction on the professionalization of qualifications) . As its
employees and their knowledge and skills are the key assets of the Center, continuous
attention to the required skills, competences and expertise is essential for its existence.
Management
The overall director and heads of department should o.a. have the following qualifications:
- Basic management skills, such as planning, budgeting, etc;
- Being able to lead and inspire employees: HR-skills (coaching);
- Being able to develop strategy: know about developments and be able to understand
consequences and implications;
- Being able to represent the Centre in the outside world: networking skills, political sensitivity
etc;
- Being able to acquire new projects: entrepreneurial spirit, identify opportunities,
communication and listening skills, be able to write proposal.
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Part III
Operation

Qualification of staff

Advisors / experts
The advisors and experts should have the following qualifications:
- Specific knowledge on certain topics of environmental information;
- Specific skills concerning the collection, analysis and/or representation of information
(such as monitoring skills, statistical analysis, etc);
- Understanding of the process and means of knowledge transfer ;
- Communication skills, specifically writing/editing and web-skills;
- (basic) training skills;
- Flexible and politically sensitive.

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Part III
Operation

Qualification of staff

Trainers / educational specialists

The trainers and educational specialist should have the following qualifications:
- Excellent training skills, both in developing, execution and evaluation of training;
- Understand the way children and adults learn;
- Understand the train the trainer concept;
- Be able to interact with experts and hired trainers;
- Understanding of the process and means of knowledge transfer in general and through
interactive means (such as training, seminar etc) specifically;
- Have good communication skills;
- Flexible.

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Part III
Operation

Qualification of staff

Support staff
The support staff has already been identified. Qualifications are in line with their specific
functions:
- Accountant; main task: accountancy (salaries, transactions); needed: accountancy skills:
- Procurement manager: main task: state purchasing; needed: knowledge about state
-

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purchasing procedures;
Financial manager (vacancy, possibly part time): main tasks: draft annual budget,
financial reporting, cooperate with procurement manager; needed: financial expertise,
experience in LepL/state organisation;
Legal advisor: main tasks: administrative work (e.g. contracts, orders), legal activities,
possibly perform training with legal focus; Needed: legal expertise, flexible attitude;
Secretariat: main tasks: correspondence, organize personnel files, answer phone. Needed:
basic secretarial skills, flexibility, efficient;
Driver: main tasks: driving people to venues, transport materials and deliver packages;
Cleaner, possibly 2 (part time): main tasks: clean offices and training facilities;
IT (part time): computers and network, digital means (via other budget line); needed:
broad knowledge of ICT and digital means, flexibility, problem solving capacities,
50
understanding of communication needs.

Part III
Operation

Investment

An overview has been made of the investments needed to equip and furnish the new
location of the Centre. Other investments for short term activities have all been budgeted
already.
The location will dispose of a 50-person conference room, two training rooms, a seminar
room, brainstorming room, computer lab and library.
The furniture and equipment needed can be divided into:
1. those that are already available within the Aarhus Centre
2. those that have been budgeted in the state budget (and can be bought when
needed)
3. those that have no coverage as of yet, and need to be financed by donors or through
other means.
A full overview of all the equipment needed can be found in annex 2.

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Part III
Operation

Investment

The items of category 3 comprise the following items. All items in total add up to an
investment of 58.507 eur that is not yet covered. Prices are without/exempt of VAT and apply
to grants. If the Centre should have to buy the items themselves, 20% VAT should be added
to the prices.
- For conference room (highest priority)
o conference tables, chairs, notebook, projector and screen:

19.500 eur

o equipment for simultaneous translation

17.727 eur

- for seminar room: chairs with built in tables; chair and table for instructor

3.200 eur

- for brainstorming room: screen, projector, laptop, small table, beanbags

3.100 eur

- for computer lab: 20 desktop computers UPS, computer desks, headphones 13.350 eur
- for library: 3 computers and UPS

1.630 eur

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Part III
Operation

Finance

The Centre has made an annual budget projection for the year 2014 of 400.000 GEL.
Analysis of the items listed shows that the budget is made up of the following main
categories.

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Category
Salary / personnel costs (16)
+ social assistance
Experts (5)

GEL (x1000)
286,5

% of total
72%

NB (in GEL)
285.000 + 1.500

15

4%

Support to activities

1%

Workshops, seminars, hotels, publications

Basic costs location

28,2

7%

Basic costs communication

17

4%

2.500 cleaning, 1.200 electricity, 1.000 water,

12.000 heating, 700 cleaning outside
Internet, phone, postal

Basic costs office

2%

Car

18,2

5%

2.500 stationary, 2.000 cartridges, 2.000 UPS,

1.000 bank fee, 500 postal
Insurance, diesel and maintenance

Travel

12

3%

3.000 (Georgia) + 9.000 (abroad)

Furniture / equipment

8,4

2%

Refrigerator 1.600; Furniture 6.500; Tel. install

300

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Part III
Operation

Finance

Conclusions
In all, it can be concluded that:
the main cost of the Centre is comprised of personnel costs (with hired experts 76%);
most cost-items are essential and of a continuous nature, and will also appear in following
years;
there are few cost-items listed that can be avoided or significantly reduced in size;
there are few items listed that are needed for the fitting of the new location (except for
furniture and for a refrigerator).
Therefore, it can be concluded that assuming the current size of 16 employees will be
maintained the annual budget of the Center needs to be kept stable around 400.000 GEL
and a separate overview should be made of the (one time) investments needed to outfit
the new location.

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54

Developed under
G2G project Georgia - Netherlands
Authors
Environmental Information and Education Centre Georgia
Nino Gvazava
Levan Tavartkiladze
Nato Sultanishvili
Sopho Tchitchinadze
Knowledge Centre InfoMil, The Netherlands
Claartje Vorstman
Rob Kramers

Annex plan
Business

1. Overview capacity needed for short term activities

2. List of investments

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Annex 1. Overview capacity for short term activities

Department of Environmental Information and PP

57
57

Annex 1. Overview capacity for short term activities

Department of Environmental Education

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58

Annex 1. Overview capacity for short term activities

Training activities

59
59

Annex 1. Overview capacity for short term activities

Training activities

60
60

Annex 2. List of investments

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