From January 1 up to March 31, 2023, all the parties have received donations of GEL 640,569 in total. Almost half of this amount – GEL 300,000 – went to the ruling party, Lelo for Georgia ranked second with GEL 201,000, and European Georgia ranked third with GEL 84,299, TI Georgia says in a report.
According to TI, as for the number of donors, the Labour Party – which has received donations 88 times during the reporting period – is taking the lead, although most of these donations consisted of small amounts.
"During the reporting period, the Georgian Dream has received almost as much donation as all the other parties taken together, although this didn’t happen due to a large number of donors – the ruling party had a total of 8 donors who gave large sums of money in favor of the party. Six of the 8 donors are businessmen from Batumi; the companies of one of them, the former member of the Batumi City Council, Nukri Dolidze, regularly win public tenders worth millions of lari.
On February 28, 2023, two businessmen from Batumi, Roman Gundadze and Zaur Salvaridze, donated a total of GEL 80,000 to the ruling party. Both of these persons own stakes in a number of companies. BS METAL GROUP LLC, in which the 100% stake is owned by Gundadze, is the winner of tenders worth more than GEL 1.2 million and has obtained simplified procurement contracts with a value of GEL 350,000. Salvaridze had donated GEL 60,000 to the ruling party in 2021, while Gundadze’s donations in the years 2020 and 2021 amounted to GEL 20,000 in total, and before that, in 2012, he had donated GEL 10,000 in favor of the organization Georgia Is Not for Sale, which was affiliated with the then ruling party United National Movement.
On March 1, 2023, businessmen from Batumi, Ramaz Beridze, Davit Nagervadze (a double citizen of Russia and Georgia), Nukri Dolidze, and Giorgi Kidzinidze, donated a total of GEL 180,000 to the Georgian Dream. The most interesting of them is the former member of the Batumi City Council, Nukri Dolidze, about whom TI Georgia has written previously on several occasions.
Nukri Dolidze donated GEL 50,000 to the ruling party on March 1; he had already donated GEL 60,000 in favor of the Georgian Dream in 2021, while in 2012, he had donated GEL 10,000 to the organization Georgia Is Not for Sale, which was affiliated with the then ruling party United National Movement. His companies – Bondi-2009 and Monoliti-2005 – are among the main business organizations implementing large infrastructure projects under way in Adjara, and have won tenders with a total value of up to GEL 230 million, including obtaining contracts with a value of up to GEL 45 million during the first four months of 2023. Nukri Dolidze’s son, Levan Dolidze, worked as the advisor to the head of the Government of Adjara on the issues of infrastructure in the years 2019-2020; during the year 2021, he was the director of the municipal equestrian club; and since 2022, he has served as the Deputy Chairperson of the Georgian Dream faction at the Batumi City Council. In 2021, Levan Dolidze donated GEL 5,000 to the ruling party. The companies owned by the Dolidzes have received thousands of square meters of real estate from the State on the basis of unconditional auctions and sale contracts concluded with the Batumi Municipality. Besides, Nukri Dolidze’s brother, Merab Dolidze, is the owner of the Adjarian House restaurant, which has obtained direct contracts worth more than GEL 300,000 through simplified procurement.
Tamaz Tamazashvili, the father-in-law of the Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, has donated GEL 10,000 to the Georgian Dream. This was the 14th donation made by Tamazashvili in favor of the ruling party; he has donated more than GEL 78,000 in total to the party," reads the report.
In addition, as TI reports, during the same period, companies linked with the donors of the ruling party have obtained direct procurement contracts worth GEL 21,000, and in the past, they have obtained direct procurement contracts with a total value of GEL 2 million.
