Shota Murghulia

Mr. Shota Murghulia is a senior expert with around 20 years of valuable experience in the fields of decentralization, municipal services, and self-government. Notably, during 2012-2013, Mr. Murghulia held the position of Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia.  

Moreover, he also served as Mayor of Kutaisi Municipality, where he coordinated the planning and implementation of short- and long-term strategies and supervised all official day-to-day operations.  

In 2021, Mr. Murghulia worked with Zugdidi and Rustavi Municipalities to develop medium-term action plans and program budgets, as well as providing coaching and mentoring to municipal staff to draft budget execution reports.  

Mr. Murghulia was also vice-president of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG), where he represented and defended the interests of local self-government bodies at national and international levels.  

More recently, Mr. Murghulia was engaged in the EC-funded “Networking for Efficiency and Development (N4ED) – a News Modality for Effective Local Self-governance in Georgia” project as a senior consultant.  

In academia, Mr. Murghulia has been lecturing  for decades on macro-economics, corporate finance, the Georgian budget system, state finance, the tax code, insurance, and financial analysis. Indeed, at Grigol Robakidze University, he is both a professor and head of its scientific research center.