MTA, a company under the Ministry of Economy, has signed a 90.5 million contract with the Italian company TechnoAlpin to host the 2023 International Championship.
The value of the contract is GEL 9.4 million less compared to the price of the company's previous offer - GEL 99.9 million. The acceptance of proposals for the purchase was announced in March, and then the estimated price of the project was GEL 137.8 million.
It is significant that the company DemacLenko, part of the LEITHER HTI group, had a critical note regarding this purchase, which issued a statement in May that this tender was probably tailored to TechnoAlpin.
In February 2023, Bakuriani should host the Skiing and Snowboarding World Championships. In order to host the championship, the Georgian government is building a multi-million dollar infrastructure at the site, one of the most important components of which is the artificial snowmaking system. In April, MTA, a company subordinate to the Ministry of Economy, announced a tender for the snowmaking project with an estimated price of 137,828,652 GEL, in which two international companies "TechnoAlpin" and "DemacLenko" submitted their proposals. The offer of "TechnoAlpin" was 137,798,395 GEL, and that of "DemacLenko" was 91,939,038 GEL, i.e. the difference between the submitted proposals was 45,859,357 GEL.
On May 17, the MTA issued a statement stating that the project would cost 99,900,000 GEL. The agency named TechnoAlpin as the winner of the tender.
On May 20, the company Demaclenko, which is a member of the LEITHER HTI group, published the first statement on the issue and indicated that it had applied to the State Audit Service about the alleged violations in the tender. Demaclenko noted that the winner was revealed with corruption risks, as the tender conditions were tailored to one supplier. At the same time, the company expressed its readiness even more - to reduce its proposal by GEL 2 million and implement the project for GEL 90 million.
Finally, the procurement agency gave permission for the contract with TechnoAlpin on June 10, which then amounted to GEL 99.9 million, and finally, the contract with the company was signed for GEL 90.5 million.
