The Ministry of Education and Science responds the statement made by media misleading the public about the guidance- books printing program. That is why the Ministry makes it public every detail connected with the purchasing of guidance- books for the 2015-2016 academic year. The Ministry claims that to compare to the previous years they purchase the textbooks notebooks in an unprecedentedly low price.

According to the information released by the publishing house “diogene”, “Intellect”, as if the textbooks are acquired in a high price by the Ministry, which is why the public funds are being spent inappropriately. In case the Ministry had bought the textbooks from the publishers or stores the price would have been much cheaper. The information is not true and it is based on the false reports. If we rely on this information we will get the following picture:

According to the table the Education and Science Infrastructure Development Agency of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia prints the textbooks mentioned above for GEL 70,221.72 (the average cost of 1 copy is GEL 1.81).

To buy the same amount of the textbooks in the minimum fixed prices in bookstores the state would be able to purchase them for GEL 309,959.5 (the average cost of 1 copy is GEL 8, 00).

Conclusion: If we consider the above-mentioned facts with the same approach and the same contract the budget savings will amount to GEL 239,737.78.

 It should be emphasized that the remaining 95% of printed textbooks is almost the same price. In general it is correct, that the data analysis is done fully but not fragmented. According to the total value of the contract, the winning company's average cost of a unit textbook Costed 3,644 GEL and 0.75 GEL notebook. The average unit price of books as well as a school exercise books is much lower than the current retail value of the school textbooks distribution. In addition to this according to the tender’s principles the supplier wins with the total value and the other suppliers taking part in the tender set the price at their discretion. It is also worth to mention that the publishers “diogene" and "intelligence" demands that the government carry out a tender for the procurement of certain books is unjustified, because the current legislation does not allow it. As for the litigation, between the publishers and the Ministry the Ministry welcomes any discussion of the issue within the framework of the law. AS it is known the publishers appealed to the court. At this point the issue was reviewed by the two courts but either of them rejected their appeal. The publishing houses "Artanuji", "brain", "Logos Press" and "Diogene”’s representatives asked the court to recognize the illegal actions of the Ministry of Education – to print and distribute the textbooks owned by publishers. In addition they demanded to repeal the government’s legal act August 15, 2013, # 1051. And to assign to the Ministry to indemnify the damages for the benefit of "Artanuji" 3 845 399 GEL, for the benefit of the publishing house "intelligence" 13 005 083 GEL, for the benefit of “Logos Press” 932 059 GEL and publishing house "Diogene” 4 911 472 GEL.

And finally, the ministry does not exclude that in spite of the detailed explanations the accusations will be continue. However, the most important task for the Ministry is to provide access of education as in previous years it was a significant problem. While the implementation the availability of education the main principles are to effectively spend the budgetary funds and to correctly inform the public.