Welcome Sacha Bepoldin, Our New Business Development Officer

Mar, 2016

We are delighted to introduce our newest team member, Sacha Bepoldin who joins us as a Business Development Officer. Sacha will be responsible for technically supporting new business development, extending partnerships, identifying new project opportunities and contributing to the company’s strategic development. Prior to joining our team, Sacha worked for Caucasus Research and Resource Center (CRRC) as an International Fellow, researching EU-Georgia relations, sociological subjects in the South Caucasus, geopolitics and institutional change. He has also accumulated valuable experience in project management and EU-related topics while working at Friedrich Naumann Stiftung and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.Sacha holds a Master’s degree in International Security, from the Institute of Political Studies (Paris, France), was an exchange student in International Relations and European Studies at the University of Helsinki (Finland), and holds a Bachelor degree in European Studies and Political Sciences from the French-German European Campus of Sciences Po (Nancy, France).

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Meet Our New Project Manager, Tamar Medulashvili

Mar, 2016

We are happy to announce the arrival of our newest team member, Tamar Medulashvili, who will join us from April 11 as a Project Manager. At the same time, we would like to congratulate the departing Nino Samvelidze, who has been appointed as a Programme Manager for Culture, Youth and Minorities at the European Union Delegation to Georgia. We welcome Tamar, who previously worked as Deputy Director of the Information Center on NATO and EU and has more than 10 years of impressive working experience in EU-related topics. Indeed, her credentials give us great confidence that she will be a big success at PMCG. As a Project Manager, she will be responsible for coordinating, managing and developing the scope of EU-related projects and activities. Tamar will be in regular communication with international partners and experts, and will represent the company at local and international forums.Finally, we would like to once again thank Nino for 2 fruitful years of working with us and for the important role she has played in accomplishing tangible results in EU-related projects. We wish Nino every success in her career and in her new position.

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Supporting Electricity Systems Commercial Operator (ESCO) to Meet Market Demand

Mar, 2016

PMCG was recently contracted by Mendez England & Associates (ME&A) to support Electricity Systems Commercial Operator (ESCO), the only commercial electricity operator in Georgia, to improve performance, under the USAID/Georgia Human and Institutional Capacity Development 2020 activity (HICD 2020). Due to Georgia’s intention to integrate into the European Union (EU) and the GoG’s subsequent efforts to harmonize its policies, laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements with the EU standards, Georgia will have to open its energy market to competition.Therefore, enhancing ESCO as an institution to meet existing demand is important. To achieve the objective, PMCG will assist the organization to adjust by improving its performance in critical areas. To reach maximum efficiency, PMCG will closely collaborate with the organization’s staff and its local and international partners. PMCG’s work will be divided into two major components. The first stage entails the assessment of the organization’s overall institutional performance, as well as the current situation covering the external and internal environment. The second development stage will cover the development of detailed performance improvement recommendations, and the defining of performance indicators to enable ESCO to measure performance on an ongoing basis. Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project:Performance Assessment for the Electricity Systems Commercial Operator (ESCO)

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Strengthening Enterprise Management in Kutaisi Municipality

Mar, 2016

PMCG continues to support Kutaisi Municipality in capacity building and institutional development.Recently, PMCG, under the USAID Good Governance Initiative Program, supported nine municipally-owned enterprises in improving management efficiency.The main rationale was that by improving management efficiency and capacity of these enterprises, the municipality could avoid the burden of maintaining entities that were operating at low-profitability or even insolvency due to poor management.The first phase of the project was devoted to exploring the current situation in the relevant enterprises. Accordingly, top managers and financial managers of the enterprises were interviewed. One of the main objectives of the interviews was to identify key reasons for the inefficiency of municipally-owned enterprises from the perspective of top managers.After the interviews with the representatives of the municipally-owned enterprises, capacity building needs were identified. It was revealed that the main problematic area for the majority of the municipally-owned enterprises were state procurement, human resources management, accounting and financial (business) planning instruments.With this in mind, PMCG conducted trainings for the municipally-owned enterprises in the following areas: Strategic Planning HR Management Strategy and Techniques Public Procurement Procedures Financial Accounting and Tax Reporting During the last phase of the project, PMCG’s team shared their suggestions with the management of these enterprises, and gave some recommendations for their long-term development and reorganization. Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project:Strengthening Kutaisi Municipal Enterprise Management  

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Welcoming Our New Research Director

Mar, 2016

We are very pleased to welcome Maya Grigolia to our team as our new Research Director after the position was vacated by Tamar Jugheli who is pursuing her PhD in Germany.Maya arrives with an impressive eight years of sound experience in economic research and policy studies. Having worked on a variety of successful projects in her career to date, Maya has cooperated with several international organizations including USAID, Asian Development Bank, Open Society International (OSI) and World Bank.In her new role as Research Director, Maya will be responsible for managing research and analyses, quality control, fundraising and communication strategies. We are confident that Maya will excel in her new position.Her predecessor, Tamar, leaves us after five years of excellent service, contributing significantly to organization's activity in the field of research. Indeed, we thank Tamar and wish every success in her studies and hope to one day again benefit from her expertise.

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Assisting Parliament of Georgia to Develop Continuous Education Policy for Doctors

Mar, 2016

Becoming a doctor requires many years of education. But the learning does not stop once the diploma has been attained, and practice begins. With this in mind, PMCG, under the framework of the USAID Good Governance Initiative (GGI) program, is supporting Parliament’s Healthcare and Social Issues Committee to develop efficient and relevant policy on continuous education for doctors. The idea for the continuous education was initiated by the Committee in July 2015 and was later discussed with leading experts from the medical education sector, who agreed that continuous education is a pressing issue.To meet the main goal of the assistance and to develop a comprehensive policy, at the first stage PMCG’s team will conduct a thorough needs assessment to identify the stakeholders, what kind of practices work and what do not, and what has previously been tried in this direction.Based on the assessment results, experts will formulate policy options applicable to the Georgian context and discuss with stakeholders who will supply their feedback. Later, PMCG will develop the policy paper and outreach plan to communicate with the local and national government, doctors, medical students and general public. The purposes of continuing medical education are as follows: to maintain and improve clinical performance; to refresh the individual’s understanding of clinical and operational roles and responsibilities; to update skills and knowledge in all treatment procedures within the scope of the provider; and to sustain skills in the use and maintenance of all equipment required to render emergency medical care.Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project: Assisting the Parliament’s Healthcare and Social Issues Committee to Develop Continuous Education Policy for Doctors  

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Progressing with Kutaisi’s Economic Development Strategy

Mar, 2016

On March 4, PMCG held a meeting with a working group comprising representatives of Kutaisi municipality to discuss the city’s Economic Development Strategy.The meeting was another step forward from April 2015, when the Mayor of Kutaisi formed a special working group, composed of representatives of different segments of society, including academia and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to develop Kutaisi’s economic development strategy.PMCG discussed a number of crucial topics at the meeting regarding the city’s economic development including long-term mission and vision, potential priority directions, and a general vision about the projects that should be implemented under each priority direction.As the engagement of the local population is a very important component for efficient strategy development, the meeting was held, were draft version of the strategy, prepared with participation of PMCG was represented to society for the first time.The meeting was held under the framework of USAID’s Good Governance Initiative (GGI) program, which aims to enhance overall transparency, accountability and effectiveness of the Government of Georgia, covering legislative and executive branches at the key levels. Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project:Assisting Kutaisi City Municipality in Elaboration of the Economic Development Strategy

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Building Capacity of Organizations in Kosovo to Implement USAID-Funded Activities

Mar, 2016

PMCG was contracted by Chemonics, under the USAID-funded Advancing Kosovo Together (AKT) Program, to accomplish the organizational capacity assessment of the Community Development Foundation (CDF), a local (Kosovo) NGO implementing the AKT Local Solution program. AKT is a three-year program which aims to foster positive and constructive inter-ethnic cooperation between the majority and minority communities in addressing common problems of unemployment, social needs, and municipal services.Through February 21 – March 3, PMCG, in tandem with the AKT program component implemented by Chemonics, facilitated discussions among key CDF staff in Pristina, Kosovo to fill out the USAID Organizational Capacity Development Tool (OCAT). Based on the OCA results and identified performance gaps, PMCG will develop a performance solutions package that will be shared with CDF's staff and partners to develop the capacity enhancement action plan and respective resourcing plan. Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project:Advancing Kosovo Together

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Introducing Needs-oriented 2016 Program Budget for Kutaisi

Mar, 2016

PMCG recently conducted meetings with the Kutaisi municipality to develop the 2016 draft program budget, under USAID Good Governance Initiative (GGI) project, aimed to support the Government of Georgia in strengthening overall transparency, accountability and effectiveness of selected governance and service delivery systems. PMCG consultants, together with the municipality’s staff, analyzed the Basic Data and Direction document and identified key priority areas for the draft budget. Consultants also delivered technical and methodological coaching to support staff design draft programs, sub programs and performance indicators. As the transparency and effectiveness of the 2016 program budget is of great importance for the municipality’s further development and economic growth, PMCG assisted the municipality to organize a series of meetings with citizens and present the draft program budget.Benefitting from this assistance, Kutaisi municipality can now allocate resources in a more efficient and transparent manner. Accordingly, the interests of the citizens of Kutaisi have been carefully considered.Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project:Improving Program Budgeting Capacity of Kutaisi Municipality

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Helping the Georgian Government to Enhance Internal Audit Systems

Feb, 2016

The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI), Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs (MoLHSA), and the municipalities of Batumi and Kutaisi are boosting their internal audit (IA) systems thanks to the assistance of PMCG, under the USAID project Good Governance Initiative (GGI).Under the framework of the project, the PMCG team reviewed the existing IA regulations, including laws, manuals, and guidelines from the Central Harmonization Unit (CHU) – the risk assessment and IA division at the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, responsible for transparency and independence of financial management and control principles, ultimately maintaining and enhancing the financial stability of the country.Through regular meetings and discussions with IA units, the PMCG team helped beneficiaries to prepare the following: risk assessment reports of the IA environment; IA mid-term (3-year) strategic plans; IA annual action plans, including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); and IA annual reports.Please kindly follow the link below for detailed information about the project:Supporting Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI), Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs (MOLHSA), Akhaltsikhe, Batumi and Kutaisi Municipalities in Capacity Development of Internal Audit (IA) Units

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