TI Georgia: companies connected with donors of ruling party won tenders worth ₾320 mln

Last year the companies connected with the donors of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD)  party had won public tenders worth about GEL 320 million and simplified public procurement contracts of GEL 19 million. During the same period, the donors directly or indirectly affiliated with these companies contributed over GEL 4.5 million for the benefit of the Georgian Dream, Transparency International Georgia said in its findings released on Friday.

 

The survey said that the financial inequality between political parties and ineffective state oversight of political corruption remained  “major problems in Georgia.”

 

TI Georgia said that 17 political parties received a total of GEL 43 million of revenues in 2021.

 

“The ruling party – Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia got 60% – about GEL 26 million of this amount. The United National Movement was second with GEL 5.1 million and Lelo for Georgia was third with GEL 3.3 million.”

 

The organization said that 17 political parties spent a total of GEL 41.9 million last year , of which 62% – GEL 25.8 million was spent by the Georgian Dream party. The United National Movement was second with GEL 5.1 million, and Lelo for Georgia was third with GEL 3.3.million.

 

It said that over the years, several major groups had been formed among the ruling party’s donors that contributed large sums of money to the Georgian Dream almost every year.

 

“All such groups have a common characteristic that a large part of their members donate money to the ruling party on the same day or several days apart, which raises doubts about whether such collective action is organized by someone in advance and whether the donations are made through other persons. Among such groups, first of all, persons directly or indirectly related to Bidzina Ivanishvili are noteworthy,” said TI Georgia.

 

The organization recommended the State Audit Office to  “thoroughly”  study the information provided by political parties on salary costs and find out why some parties had declared “unrealistically small amounts of money”.

 

“Legislative changes are needed to ensure that a political party does not lose its public funding, regardless of whether it uses parliamentary seats or not, as party funding should depend on its election results and not on parliamentary activities.”

 

It stated that political parties should do more to raise donations through events and campaigns.