One more company owned by the relatives of Anzor Bolkvadze receives an income of GEL 5 million from the procurements of Adjara 

TI Georgia continues to monitor the participation of companies linked with the family and relatives of Anzor Bolkvadze – a majoritarian MP of the high-mountain municipalities of Adjara in the Parliament of Georgia – in public procurements.

Roda LLC has received GEL 4,891,873 from public procurements since its founding in 2013. More than half of the total amount (GEL 2,611,087) is an income received from simplified procurements, tenders without competition, and at the expense of disqualification of competitors in procurements.

Out of 101 tenders won, in 99 cases the contracts were concluded in Khulo, Keda, Khelvachauri, Batumi, Kobuleti, and the Department of Roads of Adjara; only in 2 cases, the contracting authority is the Tsalka Municipality located outside Adjara. This year alone, Roda LLC obtained contracts worth GEL 1,073,537 before August 1, which constitutes 22% of the amount received by this company from public procurements. 

Income received by Roda from public procurements in the years 2013-2022

A suspiciously successful start of an inexperienced company in public procurements 

Roda is a company of Davit Bolkvadze, a son of Anzor Bolkvadze’s cousin, Avtandil Bolkvadze. Davit Bolkvadze has been the owner of a 100% stake and director of the company since the day of its founding, May 16, 2013. The inexperienced company obtained the first public procurement worth GEL 117,610 two weeks after registration – on May 29, 2013 – from a sub-agency of the Government of Adjara, the Department of Management of Roads and Melioration Systems. Roda also won in another procurement, worth several thousand lari, announced by the same Department with similarly low qualification requirements. Roda won in a total of 7 tenders announced by this Department and received GEL 510,173 in total. During this period, Anzor Bolkvadze’s son, Roland Bolkvadze, was the head of the Department’s Service of Logistics and Infrastructure Maintenance and a member of the tendering commission. Today Roland Bolkvadze is the deputy head of the Department of Roads of Adjara and still serves as a member of the Department’s tendering commission.

Risks of kickback of municipal funds in the public procurements of the Khulo Municipality

The risks of corruption are highlighted by the participation of Roda LLC in the public procurements announced by the Khulo Municipality: the company has won 52 times in the public procurements of this municipality alone, including 14 procurements won without competition and 4 – by means of disqualification of competitors. The Khulo Municipality awarded a contract to Roda for an amount higher than initially offered by the company 31 times. Roda is awarded contracts with an increased price when it participates in tenders with a lower quote than the estimated value of the procurement, as well as when a competitor company offers the contracting authority a lower quote than that of its competitor, although it finally gets disqualified, and Roda is awarded a contract with an amount increased by several thousand lari:

The table shows that, in 27 cases, the municipality awarded Roda contracts with a higher amount than the estimated value indicated in the tendering documentation, despite the fact that the company had offered a lower quote than the estimated value of procurement. It is noteworthy that the majority of such deals with Roda were made in an environment of no competition. 

Despite the fact that the said difference between the amounts is not big, the number of such cases and the same approach raises doubts regarding kickbacks of municipal budget funds by means of public procurement. Minutes of the tendering commission of the municipality do not substantiate why they award contracts to Roda for a higher amount than the estimated value of the tenders, to say nothing about the price offered by the company.

The links of Roda with other businessmen relatives of Anzor Bolkvadze 

The Roda company has links with another company, also created by Anzor Bolkvadze’s relatives, that participates in public procurements: Roda, which won one of the procurements announced by the Department of Roads of Adjara, submitted an agreement on leasing a dumper truck concluded with Roman Bolkvadze as a guarantee of performance of the works of supply of concrete. Roman Bolkvadze is the director of Giga 2015 LLC and has received more than GEL 4 million from public procurements. TI Georgia also published a study on this topic in 2020.

The Public Procurement Agency has indicated r.ananidze@mail.ru as the email of Roda LLC in the company’s official registration document. This email is also used in the registration document of the Horizonti company owned by Anzor Bolkvadze’s wife – the email belongs to Rezo Ananidze, who is the director of this company. We also wrote about this in detail in our study cited above.

At the time of registration at the Public Registry, the founder, shareholder, and director of the company, Davit Bolkvadze, indicated bolqvadze-rolandi@mail.ru as the official email of the company – and Roland Bolkvadze, as noted above, is the son of MP Anzor Bolkvadze and the head of the Department of Roads of Adjara.

TI Georgia believes that the investigative agencies should study the contracts that the Khulo Municipality awarded to Roda for far larger amounts than had been offered by the company itself. Such practice and the large number of cases raise doubts about the existence of a corruption scheme of the so-called kickbacks.