The City Hall of the Chkhorotsku Municipality procured [1] the service of transportation of pupils of public schools of Chkhorotsku from Salome 92 LLC [2], a company founded two months before the procurement, in January 2022. The value of the contract awarded to this company is GEL 207,197.  

The owners of equal stakes of 50% in Salome 92 LLC [2] are Salome and Jambul Papava, who have links with the ruling party. Jambul Papava is a coordinator of the Georgian Dream party. Salome Papava, who has been working at the City Hall of Chkhorotsku on a contractual basis since January 2022, previously worked at the bureaus of first Goga Gulordava and then Aleksandre Motserelia, majoritarian members of the Parliament of Georgia from the Georgian Dream. Salome Papava left the job at the bureau of Aleksandre Motserelia in August 2021, when Aleksandre Motserelia became a member of the For Georgia party.                                                                                  

Jambul Papava is a person close to the Mayor of Chkhorotsku, Dato Gogua. Dato Gogua has been the Mayor [3] of Chkhorotsku since December 2012 (before 2017, he was the Head of the Municipal Administration).

Jambul Papava also participated in the procurements of the Chkhorotsku Municipality in the years 2012-2021, but on behalf of another company – general partnership Jambul Papava [4] – and has obtained contracts with a total value of GEL 873,645 through tenders and simplified procurements of motor transportation service. In January 2022, Jambul Papava started the liquidation [5] proceedings of this general partnership and, in parallel, founded a new company, Salome 92 LLC [2], together with his daughter.                                                                                  

The companies owned by Salome Papava, an employee of the City Hall of Chkhorotsku, and his father, Jambul Papava, have obtained public procurements worth GEL 1,080,842 from the Chkhorotsku Municipality since 2012.

TI Georgia believes that the involvement of Salome 92 LLC and general partnership Jambul Papava in the public procurements of the Chkhorotsku Municipality raises doubts about the lawfulness of the process. Therefore, we call on the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service to study each of the procurements and to establish whether or not they contain possible signs of corruption.